As Italy and Japan further strengthen their partnership in various sectors such as defense, culture, and economy, Italian Ambassador in Japan H.E. Gianluigi Benedetti told GMI POST about the sectors that are gaining more prominence and the communities that are highly involved in strengthening bilateral ties.
The ambassador spoke about the meeting between Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that took place in Rome on January 10, wherein they agreed to upgrade the current relation to a “strategic partnership” and committed to strengthen the industrial and scientific cooperation in the future.
On scientific cooperation, the ambassador said that the 15th Japan-Italy Committee Meeting on Science and Technology Cooperation, which gathered representatives from both governments, institutions and research centers and finalized the next round of scientific collaboration.
Benedetti stressed that industrial cooperation was extremely important for the two countries because of their very similar backgrounds. Aside from their shared history, Japan and Italy are also industrial countries with many skilled artisans and engineers. “Our industrial systems are inevitably competing in the global market, but our competences and technologies in areas of mutual interest also offer opportunities for partnership. This is particularly true regarding industrial research and startup scaling up processes,” he said.
Japan and Italy have already collaborated in many areas from physics to mechatronics, from fashion to pharmaceutical, and from automotive to food.
“We have many successful examples of direct investments and industrial presence in our countries, like Marposs, De Nora, Pirelli, Luxottica, Mermec, Hergo, Danieli, Brembo, Savino del Bene, Hitachi and Takeda. However, there are new huge opportunities for industrial cooperation in high tech sectors such as green technologies including hydrogen, space, smart mobility, biopharma and artificial intelligence,” the ambassador said.
“I think these are very important areas where cooperation need to be promoted right away because changes will come in decades. Today, we have an important window of opportunity because both countries are implementing economic recovery plans and the industrial systems are very dynamic and technology oriented,” he added.
“In this fast-changing world, we are leading countries that share the same values and respect for international principles and rules. We have the same responsibilities in helping to address the big challenges of our societies: peace, economic growth, social development and the sustainability of our planet,” he also said.
