Speaking at a press conference in İstanbul, Paoletti noted that they have been working to improve bilateral economic relations between Turkey and Italy for about six years. About 800 entrepreneurs from Trieste and its neighboring cities have visited Turkey over the past three years, while 640 Turkish entrepreneurs went to Italy in the same period, Paoletti said.
The Italian Chambers of Commerce as a whole along with a number of Italian businessmen is in Turkey to have talks and discuss opportunities for cooperation with Turkish firms, all in a bid to further improve economic ties between the two countries' companies, he said. “Despite the global financial crisis, the companies of the two countries can enjoy growth if they act in cooperation,” Paoletti said, adding that there are lucrative opportunities in the fields of transportation/logistics, the wood industry and the machinery and construction sub-industries.
Paoletti stated that their primary aim is to shift production units to either Turkey or Italy but that they also plan to expand into other countries by making mutual investments with Turkish firms. He pointed out that Italy currently has an important number of companies operating in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, this in addition to Turkey, but it is unlikely to invest in countries such as China or India because they are located at too great a distance and Italy mostly has small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The SMEs' size prevents them from expanding into distant markets. For this reason, Paoletti noted, Turkey will get the largest amount of Italian foreign investment. The number of Italian SMEs currently in Turkey is around 800, he said.
Giuseppe A. Moggi, the president of the Italian Chambers of Commerce, also said that some 2,500 meetings had taken place between Turkish and Italian entrepreneurs over the last year, adding that cooperative opportunities in the fields of energy, information technology, decoration and food were primarily discussed at these meetings.
