February 9th 2015, Rome. An high-level meeting took place today between the Director of UNIDO ITPO Italy Mrs. Diana Battaggia and the Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment in Cuba Mrs. Ileana Núñez Mordoche at the UNIDO ITPO Italy premises in Rome.

The meeting was a consequence of the interest that the Deputy Minister shown towards the development programs of the Agency, during her first visit in Rome last June 30th.

In that context was promoted a collaboration between UNIDO and Cuba.

During the first visit UNIDO ITPO Italy collaborated actively with Cuba to organize a Country Presentation about the New Legislation on FDI in Cuba.  The event was held in the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (IMFAIC) and counted with the participation of  over 400 Italian companies.

Today, Mrs. Ileana Núñez Mordoche showed the new industrial policies of Cuba with regard to foreign investment, and she expressed interest in expanding industrial sectors among others packaging, industrial infrastructure, renewable energy and agro-food industry.

Mrs. Diana Battaggia confirmed the good relations between the Institutions and she showed a total openness to possible initiatives to promote Cuban activities.

She discussed, in fact, about upcoming projects involving UNIDO ITPO Italy, including the launch of the web platform for EXPO 2015.

This tool will be able to connect foreign SMEs from Developing Countries with the Italian industrial excellences, in order to create new business opportunities for companies and toexpand the network of contacts worldwide.

In addition, the Organization has been proposed to Cuba a trade exhibition of new packaging technologies, with the objective to modernize the local food system.

Also with the modernization is possible to transform the Latin Country in a new landmark for South America, due to its strategic geographical location.

During the presentation was illustrated the “UNIDO Delegate Programme” with the aim of involving and hosting in our Country to a Cuban Institutional Representative to promote agreements between enterprises and Institutions.

The meeting laid the foundation for future collaborations to expand and enhance the local SMEs.