Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti signed here Tuesday an agreement with his United Arab Emirates ( UAE) counterpart Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum for a closer partnership between the two states in order to boost bilateral trade. On the occasion of the UAE-Italy Business Forum at the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Monti and Sheikh Mohamed discussed bilateral relations and agreed on boosting cooperation in the field of services and industry. Monti said his government considered the UAE as the top trading partner in the Arab world. In 2011, Italian exports to the UAE surged by 28 percent year on year to hit 4.7 billion Euro (some 6. 02 billion U.S. dollars). Monti added that he was optimistic that this figure will be toped in 2012, as during the first six months in 2012, Italy exported goods and services worth 3.2 billion Euros (4.09 billion dollars). Meanwhile, UAE Minister of Economy Sultan al-Mansouri said non- oil trade between the Arab Gulf state UAE and Italy grew by 295 percent since 2001. Italian firms from the hospitality, food and construction sectors are active in the UAE in particular, said Dr. Silvia Flesia, a Dubai-based Italian investment consultant and the managing director of International Gulf Advisors, in a phone interview with Xinhua. Flesia said Monti's visit comes at the right time as the new government in Rome has recently implemented a number of labor market reforms and anti-corruption initiatives in order to overcome the crisis. "These steps were important in order to attract foreign direct investments from capital exporting nations like the oil-rich UAE," said Dr. Flesia. In July this year, Monti said that Italy, which fell into a recession in the second quarter this year, is keen on attracting investments from the UAE in order to revive its economy. Xinhuanet
