RIYADH, 27 January — A Saudi delegation led by Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Nizar Madani will visit Italy next week for talks with senior Italian officials, according to Massiliano Mazzanti, information officer at the Italian Embassy here, yesterday.
Mazzanti said the talks, set to begin on Jan. 30, would be held in the framework of an agreement, which was signed by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and his Italian counterpart Lamberto Dini last year to facilitate regular political consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries.
"The relations between Saudi Arabia and Italy were flourishing and entering into a new positive phase. In the next coming weeks a number of initiatives would take place in Rome as well as in Riyadh to mark this favorable development...," Mazzanti said.
On commercial front, Riyadh and Rome have forged closer relations. A committee entrusted with the task to follow up the setting up of a joint economic commission will meet early next month, the Italian official said. He added that an Italian delegation from the ministry of finance will also visit Riyadh by the middle of March to finalize the text of an agreement to avoid double taxation.
The final endorsement of the agreement is likely to boost Italian investment in the Kingdom. This will also encourage direct contacts between the entrepreneurs of the two countries. Riyadh and Rome have already signed an investment protection treaty.
The two sides have also agreed to improve the institutional and legal framework within which Saudi and Italian companies operate. At present, Italy is involved in 54 joint investment projects with a total paidup capital of SR2.4 billion. This represents about two percent of the total joint ventures in Saudi Arabia.
On cultural cooperation, Mazzanti said an Italian delegation would arrive here on Feb. 3 to finalize and sign the text of the executive program to implement a cultural agreement. Since the signing of the cultural agreement, there have been many contacts among researchers, professors and teachers of different Saudi and Italian universities.
The defense ties between the two countries have been progressively growing since the visit of the then Italian Minister of Defense Carlo Scognamiglio to the Kingdom in October 1999. The relations will get a boost after the visit of the Italian defense chief in the middle of February.
