Around 150,000 expatriate Pakistanis living in Italy: Ambassador Andreas Ferrarese

Staff Writer

Islamabad: Italy’s Ambassador to Pakistan Andreas Ferrarese said this week that around 150,000 expatriate Pakistanis were living in Italy.

He mentioned that they had been sending massive amount of remittances back home for the past couple of years.

The envoy said Italy and Pakistan have the potential to become huge trading partners in the European Union where Islamabad enjoys a modest trade surplus.

Ambassador Ferraresehe said that Italy had the largest number of Pakistani immigrants in Europe and hoped that they would act as a key factor for developing people-to-people and trade relationship between the two countries.

Citing readily available figures, he pointed out that in fiscal year 2020-21, workers’ remittances from Italy to Pakistan hit $ 601 million, an all-time high from any European nation.

“This amount is 66% higher than the $369 million received in fiscal year 2019-20 and it has made Italy the seventh largest destination for Pakistan in terms of workers’ remittances and the largest in the EU,” said Ambassador Ferrarese. He expected the pace of growth to continue in the new fiscal year.

He underlined that Pakistan enjoyed a trade surplus of $210 million with Italy in fiscal year 2019-20 against a deficit of $164 million in 2018-19.

He cherished that Pakistan managed to achieve the trade surplus with Italy despite the Covid-induced slowdown and lockdown.

Pakistan’s major exports to Italy comprised textile, leather, rice and ethanol. “Pakistani rice enjoys 38% share in the Italian market.”

Italy is the third largest economy in the European Union, after Germany and France, and it is Pakistan’s ninth biggest export destination.