ICE president favours collaboration in science and technology, ICT, medicine, energy, environment

Dubai, August 14, 2007: The prospects of strengthening the existing trade relations, and enhancing cooperation in the fields of science and technology were discussed at a meeting recently between senior TechnoPark, and Italian foreign trade officials.

Talking about scientific and technological collaboration during his visit to TechnoPark last week, Ambassador Umberto Vattani, President, Italian Institute of Foreign Trade (ICE) said:

"Italy is very advanced in the fields of environment preservation, water desalination and alternative energy. There are good reasons to cooperate, and see how we can bring some of our best scientists, and work together in these areas."

Ambassador Vattani also mentioned Italian advancement in the medical field, particularly oncology, orthopaedic and neurology, and said that there is vast potential for cooperation in these areas as well. ICT is another area where Italy has done extensive work.

Managing Director TechnoPark Mr. Hamad Al Hashemi explained that while environment, water and energy are some of the priority areas for TechnoPark, "We are enhancing our business outlook approach to cover many other areas to expand our focus, and we are always interested in flagship projects, and are now looking to expand in biotechnology and nanotechnology, which has a strong demand and need in this part of the world."

Mr. Al Hashemi explained that the business model followed by TechnoPark is not rigid, and carries a degree of flexibility, allowing for the creation clusters based on demand.

Ambassador Vattani's visit comes at the heels of Al Hashemi's recent series of meeting with ICE officials and business leaders in Rome and Milan.

The growing interest in Italian business circles in the investment opportunities available at TechnoPark has prompted the science and technology facilitator of Economic Zones World to establish a representative office in Rome.

During his visit, Al Hashemi had also discussed the prospects of initiating links between TechnoPark and the Italian Institute of Technology.

A number of road shows are also planned in major Italian business centres towards the end of this year.

-Ends-

About TechnoPark
TechnoPark (TP) is a fully owned subsidiary of Economic Zones World.  It symbolizes Dubai's vision to develop a knowledge-based technology-centric sustainable business hub, which will not only support the country's research and development needs in its core sectors but will also support the nation's long term economic development and growth.

TP is focused on Research, Development and Studies in the field of the country's core economic sectors viz. Energy, Desalination & Water Resource Management, Environmental Resource Management and technology driven knowledge based industrial development. TechnoPark's R&D initiatives focus on nurturing business ideas or new technologies in respective areas, which could be quickly translated into real-world industrial / business operations. TechnoPark's Research and Development initiatives are also directed at improving the existing technologies in the country's core economic sectors to enhance their production efficiencies. www.technopark.ae

About Italian Institute of Foreign Trade (ICE)
The Italian Institute for Foreign Trade (I.C.E.), established in 1926, is the governmental agency whose task is the promotion and development of trade and industrial co-operation between Italy and the rest of the world, thereby encouraging the internationalization of Italian companies, in particular Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs), and their taking root in foreign markets.

The Head Office is located in Rome, and a constant exchange of information and feed-back from it and its 16 regional offices in Italy and more of 100 offices in the world, enables the Institute to swiftly respond to ongoing challenges affecting international markets and guarantees comprehensive support to each individual domestic company wishing to enter and establish itself in the global market.

I.C.E. gathers information via continuous monitoring of overseas markets, commercial trends and investments, carried out by its network of offices abroad. To enable simple and immediate access to data, I.C.E. information resource is available on line at www.italtrade.com.

For more information please contact:
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© Press Release 2007