Expocentre Fairgrounds hosted a meeting between Alexey Vyalkin, Director General of EXPOCENTRE AO, and Giorgio Starace, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Italy. The meeting was attended by Francesco Pensabene, Director of ICE.

Alexey Vyalkin thanked Mr. Giorgio Starace for assistance in organising the Italian pavilion at the Agroprodmash exhibition. He noted that Italy was an important strategic partner and participant of many major exhibition projects of EXPOCENTRE AO.

"Even in the challenging year of 2020, Italy was among the top five countries in terms of investment in Russian regions," Alexey Vyalkin stressed. He also noted that a significant part of these investments came from the agro-industrial sector.

For his part, the Italian Ambassador noted that Agroprodmash was the first exhibition he visited in his current status. "I am very pleased that this exhibition is dedicated to the agro-industrial complex, which is among the priority sectors of Russian-Italian economic cooperation," said Mr. Giorgio Starace. The Italian ambassador has set an ambitious target of bringing three times as many Italian companies to Russia.

The sides also discussed prospects for further cooperation in the exhibition and congress sector.

After the meeting, members of the delegation toured the exhibition and the Italian national pavilion, in which 21 Italian companies are taking part this year.