Dubai: Lombardy, home of luxury fashion brands like Valentino and Prada, is looking to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in the next few weeks with the Department of Economic Development in Dubai, which would help Italian companies set up production facilities here, according to an Italian government official.
The government of Italy’s northern Lombardy region will “facilitate and promote the process ” of Italian companies opening facilities for the production of food, fashion products, precision devices and the design of furniture, Fabrizio Sala, who is vice president of social housing, expo, international and European relations and business internationalisation of the Lombardy region, told Gulf News in an interview on Wednesday.
Sala is part of a delegation that is visiting Dubai to promote economic cooperation between the Lombardy region and Dubai.
“Italian production units are not sufficient to satisfy demand on a global level, so we want to open production units here to meet global demand and create partnerships with local companies” he said.
Products manufactured in the facilities will be exported to the Middle East (including Iran) and some Asian countries, he said, adding that he hopes the facilities to start opening here before the end of this year.
He said that the UAE is an important market for Italian companies because it is a global trade hub.
“Many goods that are exported to the UAE are re-exported elsewhere,” he said.
Exports from the Lombardy region to the UAE in the first half of 2015 stood at €856 million (Dh3.4 billion), a growth of over 42 per cent compared to the same period in 2014, said Federico Maria Bega, head of strategic areas at the Milan Chamber of Commerce Industry Handcrafts and Agriculture.
Milan exported nearly 40 per cent of those goods, he said.
The export figures for the full year will be available at the end of the first quarter of this year, he said, adding that he expects exports from the region to the UAE to have grown by 30 per cent year-on-year in 2015.
Machinery accounted for 26 per cent of first-half exports, valued at €223 million. Transportation-related exports were valued at €158 million, while fashion, textiles and leather goods exports were valued at €73 million.
There are 800 Italian companies in the UAE, Bega said, adding that around a third of those are from the Lombardy region.
UAE-Italy bilateral trade stood at €6.2 billion in 2014.
