Economic and commercial exchanges, especially in the energy sector, and international policy, most notably dialogue and integration between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean. These are the focus of the Italian-Algerian summit taking place in Algiers today, 14 November 2012. The Italian delegation is being led by Prime Minister Mario Monti, accompanied by Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Giulio Terzi, Economic Development, Corrado Passera, Home Affairs, Annamaria Cancellieri, and Defence, Giampaolo Di Paola.<\/P>
\n
In March 2012 Minister Terzi\u2019s visit to Algiers marked the start of preparations for today\u2019s summit, with a number of political and technical visits taking place in the intervening months. <\/P>
\n
Italian SMEs and energy<\/STRONG><\/P> Alongside the GALSI project, for which economic feasibility studies are under way, is the renewable energy sector, for which the Algerian government has announced a substantial investment plan. The goal, therefore, is to strengthen Italy and Algeria\u2019s commercial relations, which are already showing robust growth. In 2011, Italy was Algeria\u2019s second trading partner (its second customer, after the USA, and second supplier, after France), while in the first half of 2012 we have risen to first place. Our main import is natural gas, while our exports to Algiers are led by industrial equipment and machinery. <\/P> The summit agenda<\/STRONG><\/P> Monti will be meeting the President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and the Premier, Abdelmalek Sellal. Bilateral meetings between the Italian ministers and their Algerian colleagues are scheduled, on commercial, security and international issues, with a discussion between Ministers Terzi and Medelci also on the agenda.<\/P> \u00a0<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Economic and commercial exchanges, especially in the energy sector, and international policy, most notably dialogue and integration between the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean. These are the focus of the Italian-Algerian summit taking place in Algiers today, 14 November 2012. The Italian delegation is being led by Prime Minister Mario Monti, accompanied by […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6,76],"class_list":["post-18497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-approfondimenti","tag-mediterraneo-e-medio-oriente","tag-ministri-precedenti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18497\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in Algeria, and over 180 Italian SMEs present in the country. Energy is a priority sector, in which several Italian companies, including ENI and ENL, have a presence. Algeria is Italy\u2019s first supplier of natural gas, at present covering 35% of our national requirement. An important issue currently under discussion is the inter-governmental agreement signed in 2007 for the construction of a second, important gas pipeline (GALSI) linking Algeria to Sardinia, and from there to Tuscany. <\/P>
\n
\n
\n
\n