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Italian ambassador to facilitate joint ventures

Staff Report

KARACHI: Italian Ambassador, Vincenzo Prati said Thursday that he would facilitate joint ventures between Italian companies and their Pakistani counterparts if serious proposals were extended to him.

Speaking at a luncheon presentation of Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (PPMA), he said Italy has allocated $10 million for setting up a plant to locally produce ‘self destructive syringes’ under a joint venture between Italian company and Pakistani counterpart from private sector.

He said Italy has converted its $100 million loan for Pakistan through debt swap some time back and $10 million has been allocated from that amount for this project.

He pointed out that Italian manufacturer of self-destructive syringes has been identified and now his government is looking for Pakistani partners for this joint venture.

Responding to the demand of PPMA for arranging meetings of Pakistani pharmaceutical manufacturers and Italian pharmaceutical companies for joint ventures in technical fields, Prati said that he was more than willing to extend support in this regard.

“I need serious people from PPMA, having concrete proposals for joint ventures in specific fields,” he added.

He said that low cost of production in Pakistan coupled with the very high quality of Italian products would form the ideal joint ventures.

Prati said that Italian Embassy will invite Italian Health Minister end of January or early February 2010 to visit Pakistan in reciprocation to the earlier visit of Pakistani Health Minister to Italy.

He said that a seminar could be held on “opportunities for joint ventures in pharmaceutical field in Pakistan” during the visit of Italian Health Minister’s visit.

He said large Italian pharma companies can come to Pakistan and three to four big projects in pharmaceutical fields can be discussed with Pakistani partners during that seminar.

Prati said that an Italian Thalassemia physician is working in Pakistani to help local hospitals to fight against this disease.

Earlier, chairman PPMA Zahid Saeed in his presentation sought the help of Italian Ambassador for joint venture in various pharmaceutical fields including biotech facilities, active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and clinical research organization (CROs).

He said all the major multinational pharmaceutical companies from all over the world are operating in Pakistan except Italian companies.

He said pharmaceutical business was growing at a rate of 21 percent and there are bright prospects for Pak-Italy joint ventures in this field. Former Chairman PPMA, Dr. Kaiser Waheed also spoke on the occasion.

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