MULTAN: Italian Ambassador Stefano Pontecorvo announced providing additional Rs450m for the Walled City project and establishment of the Pak-Italian Resource Centre in the building of Clock Tower where the opportunities of business would be created for Multani artists.

During his meeting with Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Aamer Khattak and talking to the media here on Friday, the Italian ambassador said there were a number of opportunities for promoting cultural and religious tourism in Pakistan.

Mr Pontecorvo said the share of tourism in the GDP of his country was 15pc and Pakistan could also follow that practice. He added work on Walled City project funded by the Italian government was going to be restarted and work on a master plan in this regard was underway.

He said his government was also interested to provide assistance for the prevention of diseases in the children in the Children Complex Hospital Multan while it was also ready to provide all kinds of cooperation for the promotion football in Pakistan.

Accompanied by his wife Ms Lydia, the Italian ambassador inaugurated Musafir Khana, Darbar Musa Pak Shaheed and visited the office of Walled City project established in the building of Clock Tower, craft market and shrines of Shah Rukn-e-Alam and Bahauddin Zakariya Multani.

The Italian government had allocated $10m for renovation and restoration of historical buildings in Multan after the former Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani had asked his Italian counterpart to provide consultancy to preserve the historical status of Multan on the pattern of the renovation of Rome.

Published in Dawn, January 25th, 2020