November 1, 2005 - 14:29 AMT
Good Basis Laid for New Stage of Armenia-Italy Developing Cooperation
«We were warmly received in Armenia. It showed the friendly ties between Armenia and Italy. We would like to strengthen these ties in trade and economy,» stated Plenipotentiary Minister, Senior Representative of the Italian MFA Department for Development of Cooperation Eugenio Campo in the course of a joint conference with Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Armen Bayburdyan in Yerevan today. In his words, good basis is laid for new stage of development of the cooperation. He remarked it was necessary to proceed to implementation of programs. Countries Italy cooperates with should decide themselves the fields they want to work in and the cooperation should consecutively develop, Eugenio Campo stated. «These programs are preliminary, however we are here to acquaint ourselves with possible directions of cooperation,» he said. Besides, he reported health and agricultural programs were planned. «These are the fields that should develop,» he added. «E.g. there is a medical company in Italy, which is ready to retrain young Armenian physicians - this is a first project. The second is establishing a pharmaceutical joint venture in Armenia,» he reported. As of agriculture, «the matter concerns high technologies,» E. Campo explained. Scientific programs are also expected. He also remarked the need for forming an information system and expressed the importance of application of information technologies in cooperation. «Cooperation fields may expand by means of contacts and information exchange,» E. Campo remarked.