Italy assures India on simplifying visa procedure

• In a significant development, the Foreign Minister of Italy assured that major simplification will be made in the visa regime for business, students and researchers and official/diplomatic passport holders
• Indian professionals particularly from IT sector face hassles while taking visa for European countries.
• In the new Schengen visa regime, flexibilities provided for the national visa regime will be explored fully to see for long—term multiple entry visas for up to 3 years for these categories
• Mr. Sharma, who is on a three—day visit to Italy, said that the bilateral trade between the two is growing at over 25 per cent in 2010, after a decline due to the global crisis.
• "We could work towards a target of doubling our bilateral trade to 12 billion (USD 17.5 billion) in the next five years," he said. The two-way commerce stood at USD 7.26 billion in 2009—10.
• Both the countries also agreed to form a Joint Business Council managed by industry body FICCI from India and Confindustria from Italy, the statement said.
• The JBC will meet once a year coinciding with the bilateral ministerial meeting.