MANAMA, 4 January 2007 — The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is expected to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) in a few weeks, a senior Italian visiting official said here yesterday.
Ugo Intini, deputy foreign minister of Italy, said though he was not sure about the exact date of signing of the FTA, he was convinced that the agreement would be in place in a month time.
At the end of his five-day official visit to Bahrain, he said in a press conference that he met with the EU top official supervising the EU-GCC FTA process and assured that things were on the right track. Being a strong supporter of this treaty, he said, Italy has been pushing hard over the years to sign the FTA first and give final touches later.
“In my point of view we need to sign the agreement first and can do some final exercises to address some small issues. You can’t wait for agreement to linger on for years. Both sides are serious and many outstanding issues have already been addressed at last round of talks held in Saudi Arabia in May. We feel that things should move forward to serve both sides in real manner,” he said.
He said the EU-GCC free trade agreement is vital for both blocs and needs to be signed quickly and without wasting time anymore.
“The political cooperation between the two sides is of immense importance and will give a new dimension to the existing ties between the two countries. Bahrain, being a strategically located country in the region, can play a pivotal role in bolstering trade and economic ties,” he further said.
Emma Bonino, Italy’s minister for International Trade and European Affairs, during her visit to Bahrain in 2006 said that the European Union was seeking a more flexible approach from the GCC on the FTA.
Intini, who was joined by the Italian Ambassador Calogero Di Gesu and the founding chairman of BIDCO Ahmed Jawahery and Dr. Cesare Orlandini, representative of Simest, also praised the efforts of Bahrain to come forward by establishing the Bahrain-Italian Development Company (BIDCO).
He also announced the establishment of an Italian bank in Bahrain as part of the agreement signed earlier by the Italian side and the Union of Arab Banks. “We are hoping to have an Islamic bank in Rome to serve the client base in Italy and this cooperation in the banking and financial sector will give a new impetus to the existing ties between Bahrain and Italy.”
Adel Al-Saffar, founding member of BIDCO, also highlighted the salient features of the new entity and said that there were five projects in the pipeline jointly supported by the Bahrain Development Bank and its Italian counterpart Simest, a semi- government bank led by the Italian foreign trade department.
Jawahery said the formation of BIDCO would help boost trade and commercial ties between the two sides as part of a long-term strategy aimed at exploring trade, commercial and investment opportunities in all vital areas of interest.
