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This was indicated by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath at a meeting of India-Italy Business Forum which was attended by Italian President Carlo Azgelio Ciampi.
The three billion euro bilateral trade between India and Italy was growing at about 10 per cent, and the enabling environment in New Delhi's foreign trade sector would help trade and industry on the two sides to achieve the target, Nath said.
The minister highlighted the opportunities for investment in India and also pointed at large gaps in the physical infrastructure and energy generation capacities. The country was looking at investments to the tune of $150 billion to fill these gaps, he added.
Referring to FDI policy initiatives, Nath said many new sectors had been opened to FDI and up to 100 per cent of foreign investment was permitted in most sectors.
At his meeting with Italian minister for production activities, industry, energy and trade, Antonio Marzano, Nath sought Italy's cooperation as a member of EU in settling the issue of various non-tariff barriers being imposed on supposed grounds of health and sanitary and phytosanitary standards.
The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Italy-based consortium Sistema Italia Exports signed an MoU to develop a world-class agro-industrial park with investment of 900 million euro.
The park to be established over 1200 acre of land will have 50 joint venture industries having individual product refrigeration centres, EU certification, quality control, cereal and milk silos, triple security zones for total health and safety control along with a hospital.
It is aimed at creating a unique and competitive environment to process India's high potential agricultural products targeting quality improvements, European Union food and safety norms and higher value addition through technology and better food-chain processes.
The MoU was signed by Amit Mitra, the secretary general, FICCI and Giuseppe Bartolucci, the President of CSIE, in the presence of Arun Kumar, joint secretary, the ministry of food processing industries, and Antonio Marzano, the Italian Minister for Production Activities.
Once developed, the park, 'Sistema Italia FICCI Hyper Food City-India', will become a point of entry of the Italian food processing industries into joint venture with Indian partners.