Mr. Sergio Marini, President of the Arab-Italian Chamber of Commerce to the Yemen Times:”We have a soft corner for Yemen and we hope that our relations economically, socially and culturally continue to flourish” [Archives:2005/843/Community]
Interviewed by Nadia Al-Saqqaf
Yemen Times Staff
The Arab-Italian Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit organization based on total equality between both Arab and Italian sides. Created in 1972 by the joint initiative of the Arab Ambassadors in Italy, the Arab League, the General Union of the Arab Chambers of Commerce and the Italian business community, the Chamber aims at promoting the economic cooperation and commercial relations with the Arab Countries.
The Chamber is the only body officially acknowledged in Italy and participated by the Arab League and all its members: Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Comoros, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Djibouti, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen. Large companies from both the public and the private sector, medium and small enterprises, banks, chambers of commerce, institutions and associations are members of the Chamber.
Mr. Sergio Marini, President of the Arab-Italian Chamber of Commerce visited Yemen last week on an official visit aimed at strengthening the commercial relations between Italy and Yemen. Although Mr. Marini, born in Savona, Italy, 1939 had started his career in Architecture until the early seventies, he started a managerial trend in 1973 when he became the president and general manager at COPER s.r.l., main company of the Italian Cooperative Federation (Lega delle Cooperative), dealing with economic and social researches, planning, architectural projects. Since then he had gradually progressed in his career to become Vice-President for housing and international projects at CO.NA.CO COSTRUZIONI, the Italian national consortium of building cooperatives in 1977. In year 1981 Mr. Marini became president and general manager at INTERCOOP, a cooperative organization corporation dealing with import-export trading and industrial projects abroad. Mr. Sergio Marini became president of President of the Arab-Italian Chamber of Commerce in 1983.
During his short visit to Yemen, which was organized in coordination with the Federation of Yemeni Chambers of Commerce, he had met with many businessmen and officials and discussed issues concerning common interests and future potential opportunities. nadia alsaqqaf of Chief Editor of the Yemen Times met with Mr. Marini on his last day in Yemen and talked about his visit.
Why this visit to Yemen?
The chamber works in partnership with all the 22 countries in the Arab league, and this of course includes Yemen. The Arab-Italian chamber of commerce conducts regular visits to all its members and it had intended to visit Yemen last year but because the Yemeni Federation of Chambers of Commerce was busy last December it took place only this time in May. The visit is not a consequence to the president's visit to Italy last November because we operate on economic issues and our relations are not dependent on the political events, although political relations help our work naturally.
What do you feel you have achieved in this visit, and was it satisfactory?
This is a friendly visit that aimed to strengthen the economic relations between Yemen and Italy and to explore potential investment opportunities in Yemen. There are many Italian small and medium scale companies registered within this chamber and we are hoping to define a framework for this cooperation. We have fulfilled our objectives relatively and we hope that Yemeni businessmen would visit Italy next to build on this opportunity.
Which fields of investment are you interested the most? Would you be interested in the oil sector?
There is only one large oil company in Italy called ENI which is concerned with oil and oil productions and this could be interested in investing in Yemen not just for petroleum but also the various petroleum products. As for us, we represent small to medium scale industries from various fields and we are keen to promote investing in mechanics, textile, building materials among other industries. We are hoping to encourage Italian companies small and medium scale to invest in Yemen. To start with they will first explore the Yemeni market and decide if there are potential opportunities or not. And gradually with commitment and facilitations we hope that the economic relations between Yemen and Italy would progress. In the Arab region our experience with Tunisia is the most successful and we hope to replicate this in all the other countries especially in Yemen because we have a soft corner for this country.
Considering the current investment environment, what would be the magnitude of your investments in Yemen? And have you been given any guarantees and insurances or incentives for the stability of the businesses and investment in Yemen?
We hope that the conditions in Yemen will improve soon. Currently there are reforms going on and the economic growth for the last year is significant. Agreements with eth IMF and the WB are being respected and I am optimistic about the future and although difficulties are there but with good planning they could be overcome. Any country faces difficulties and all countries have their problems. Europe fro example has its share of economic problems are well. But before any sold investment can take place there must be too agreements in application: one is the protection of the investors and this was signed last November during the Yemeni president's visit to Italy but is not yet into action and I suppose it will take two or three years before it is implemented practically. And the other is an agreement to avoid double taxation so as to encourage the Italian businessmen to come to the Yemeni market without fearing of being taxed in Yemen as well as in Italy for the same goods. There had been no discussions in this issue as yet but we hope that this issue is attended to and taken care of if investment in Yemen is to be encouraged.
What would you recommend must be done to improve trade exchange between Yemen and Italy and the business in Yemen in general?
An important issue in this regards in addition to the two points I mentions before is that before anything as such takes place, the length and cumbersome of the procedures required must be decreased to allow an investment take place in reality. Lengthy and complex procedures would only delay and limit investments. In many other countries these procedures have been minimized so as to attract more investors to the country. Furthermore, the Yemeni market is not promoted economically in the west. Yemen should be promoted and advocated more as a potential market and potential place for investments especially tourist wise. There should be information centers about Yemen everywhere in the world that inform interested investors about the country and the possibilities of investing and the procedures needed. For example, our partnership with Tunisia is the one of the best in eth region as we have had excellent relations with them and in the past there years the number Italian investments have increased tremendously there. Yemen could learn from this experience especially that we in Italy have a soft corner for Yemen and the Yemeni people.
Why do you think the Italian products could find their place in the Yemeni market, especially in the presence of competition of the less costly eastern products? And could Italy be a market for Yemeni goods?
I don't think that Yemen would pose as potential market for our fashion goods and cosmetics as such because these tend to be expensive and not of interest to the majority of the Yemeni people The Italian products would find a place in Yemen because of their high quality of make and their relatively cheaper prices than western products. We have a small market in Yemen and we hope to increase it, we are also looking forward to Yemen exporting their products to Italy. However, I think the best resource Yemen could tap on is tourism, especially that the Italian people have a long history with investing and managing tourism projects. Italy along has one quarter of the world's cultural heritage and our experience in promotion tourism could be very helpful to promoting Yemen. Yemen as a country has great potentials that must be utilized, you have the sea and the mountains and you have a lot of historical places that should be preserved. Also Italian tourists would find Yemen a beautiful place to visit. So Yemen should be promoted more than it is currently. You also have beautiful islands; and Socatra for example is a treasure on its won.
Italian and Yemeni relations date to more than 75 years now, how do you see Yemen benefiting from this relation further?
I think Yemen should learn from the Italian experience when we were able to rise from the ruined state post the Second World War to becoming the 7th most progressing country in the world today. We could achieve this because of investment in the small and medium scale industries, which lead to retrieving the economy from the remains and was rebuilt again. You could see that the Yemeni economy is a state of reform now and concentrating on these industries would help the economy to a great extent. Obviously the times have changed now and you could not measure what happened after the Second World War to Italy on Yemen today, but still I believe that this is the way out. Today because of globalization and the rapid movement of the world economics the challenges are more but they could be overcome through investing in the small and medium scale economies. Our relations should not only be limited to the economic sphere but should include social and cultural relations. Yemen should install a center for information in Italy to provide interested people with whatever information about Yemen they need. Moreover Yemeni businessmen and women could benefit from the Arab-Italian Chamber services. The Chamber offers its members free and exclusive commercial promotion through economic missions in the Arab countries, through the Arab economic delegations to Italy, through Participation in exhibitions in the Arab countries and seminars.
The Chamber also provides operative assistance through providing information on country reports, laws and regulations of countries, financial means and credit lines and any data and statistical information on trade as well as on Italian exporters and on Arab importers.
In your short visit, how do you assess Yemeni women's presence in the economic arena?
I met many businessmen in Yemen, but hardly any businesswomen. I don't know id this is the case normally but and I think that women are an integral part of any economy and you just cannot ignore the value that women can bring into the economy of a country. Yemen should encourage businesswomen further and incorporate them in events like this one. We don't have this problem in Italy and we think that businesswomen are an important part of our economy.
Is there anything you would like to comment?
I hope to visit Yemen again and to see more of the country than this time. I don't know when I will be coming again, nothing is there for this year and I would love to come again the next year perhaps. However, I do encourage Yemeni businessmen to visit Italy, they could refer to our website www.cameraitaloaraba.org and contact any business men and coordinate visits of mutual interests. I also hope that they would participate in the coming event we have in Bologna this November.
Italy and Yemen have had their relation back to more than 75 years until date. My wish is to create a partnership with Yemen under global framework because we have a special corner fro Yemen and we feel related to the people in our hearts. We want Yemen to be our focal point in the Middle East and we want to encourage relations further.
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