Following the PM's visits to Belgium and the European Commission, and his meeting with the leaders of European countries on the sidelines of the sixth ASEAN Europe Meeting (ASEM-6) in Helsinki, Finland, in September last year, this visit is expected to create a breakthrough in the Viet Nam-Italy relationship, said Nguyen Manh Dung, assistant to the Foreign Minister and Head of the Foreign Ministry's Section for Europe.

The visit is aimed at boosting the economic, investment and trade relations between the two countries as well as their localities.

As scheduled, the two sides will discuss four agreements on bilateral cooperation in tourism, small and medium-sized enterprise, vocational training, and culture-education fields, and an agreement on cooperation between Ha Noi and Lazio region of Italy. These documents are expected to be signed in April 2007 during the Italy Month in Viet Nam.

The diplomatic ties between Viet Nam and Italy were established on March 23, 1973 and made remarkable progresses since early 1990s. After an official visit to Viet Nam by Italian Foreign Minister G. De Michelis in December 1989, the two countries continued exchanging delegations.

Dung said, Italy has given active support to Viet Nam's cooperation with the European Union, at international forums as well as to the normalisation of the country's relations with international financial, commercial and monetary organisations.

Italy was one of the first European countries to resume and develop economic cooperation with Viet Nam. Some Italian syndicates started operating and got remarkable results in Viet Nam such as Technip Italy with its project to build the Phu My Fertiliser Plant, Danieli Officina with a steel project, Fiat Iveco with a project to set up the Mekong Automobile Joint Venture, or Pirelli with the Ha Noi-Ho Chi Minh City fibre optical cable project.

The two-way trade volume over recent years constantly increased, from 320 million USD in 1996 to 700 million euros in 2005 and 870 million euros in 2006. Viet Nam imports from Italy leather, chemicals, transportation and construction equipment, sanitary wares, medical equipment and household commodities. It exports to Italy footwear, coffee, aquatic produce, textile and garment, fine art and handicraft products.

Italy now ranks ninth among EU countries and 31st among all countries investing in Viet Nam with 22 projects capitalised at 55.9 million USD.

In 1997, Viet Nam and Italy signed an agreement on the implementation of a 60 million USD Official Development Assistance (ODA) sum granted by Italy. However, only some projects have been approved by the Italian Government so far.

This year, Italy pledged to give 42.15 million euros in ODA to Viet Nam, including 4.05 million euros in non-refundable aid, and 38.1 million euro in preferential loans.

77 percent of Italy's ODA capital is usually allocated to social field, while human resource development receives 5 percent, production development and marketing - 12 percent, and poverty reduction - 6 percent.

The two countries also inked an agreement on cultural cooperation in 1990. Every year, the Italian Government gives a number of long-term and short-term scholarships to Viet Nam as well as its assistance in organising seminars, exhibitions and film shows of Viet Nam. (VNA)