Staff Reporter :
Italy’s Vice Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Maria Tripodi will visit Bangladesh from February 18 to 20 to talk multifaceted issues including migration challenges and collaboration in other fields.
During her visit, she is expected to meet with the Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus, Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain, and Adviser for Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment Asif Nazrul.
This visit is anticipated to play a significant role in deepening bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Italy.
The Director General of the Public Diplomacy Wing and Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mohammad Rafiqul Alam, shared the information during the weekly briefing at the Ministry on Thursday.
He said, “This will be the first ministerial-level visit from Italy in the past eight years and also the first ministerial-level visit from any EU country since the current interim government of Bangladesh assumed office.”
About the key issues to be prioritized during the visit include, he said that swift and effective resolution of migration-related challenges, enhancement of mutual cooperation in the industrial and commercial sectors, and expansion of collaboration in education and cultural fields to strengthen people-to-people ties between the two nations.
According to Italy’s Embassy in Dhaka, around 200,000 Bangladeshi citizens including irregulars are residing in Italy and engaged in various works.
According to the Italian official data, Bangladesh ranks first among the countries receiving remittances from Italy. It may be mentioned that Italy hosts the 2nd largest Bangladeshi expatriate community in Europe after the United Kingdom (hosting more than 600,000)
Bangladesh Community in Italy secured the first position in sending remittances to Bangladesh in 2022 with over 1198 million euros, equal to 14.63% of the total outgoing remittances (which was approximately Euro 1000 million in 2021 and Euro 750 million in 2021.)
The bilateral trade reached the record figure of 2.7 billion euro in 2022, according to the Italy’s Embassy in Dhaka. Foreign direct investment (FDI) to Bangladesh recorded at 3.5 billion US dollars in 2022-23 fiscal year.
