KARACHI: “The trade potential between Italy and Pakistan is around $5 billion, which is five times more than where our trade currently stands,” said Consul General of Italy Danilo Giurdanella at an event held at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) here on Thursday.

It was organised by IBA’s International Resource Centre.

The session titled ‘Pak-Italy Relations through Diplomatic Lens’ was opened by IBA executive director Dr S. Akbar Zaidi.

Dr Zaidi shed light on the increasing interest of IBA students in taking up Italian as a foreign language, showing their eagerness to get admission to higher education institutions in Italy.

“We want close relationships with top tier universities of the world, and Italian universities have a very fast-growing market of Pakistani students,” he noted.

Mr Giurdanella mentioned how Italy, like Pakistan, had an ancient civilisation, and both countries had been a hub of various cultures living together.

He highlighted the Islamic influence in southern Italy during the middle ages. He also appreciated the state-of-the-art campus facilities offered at the IBA.

Highlighting the importance of people-to-people interaction and how that helps in creating strong bilateral relationships and diplomatic ties, the consul general talked about the large numbers of Pakistanis living in Italy.

“Italy has the largest population of Pakistanis living within the European Union,” he stated.

He also spoke about the need for high level conferences in Pakistan so that the rest of the world gets to know the potential that lies within the country.

“Italy and Pakistan share very good cooperation at the United Nations. Both are members of the Uniting for Consensus,” he remarked, referring to the Coffee Club, a movement that developed in the 1990s in opposition to the possible expansion of permanent seats in the UN Security Council.

Dr Zaidi concluded the talk by encouraging the IBA faculty and students to explore higher education options in Italy which has great institutions of higher learning.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2021