"One of the issues we have in common is on water use. In Italy we have a commissioner for drought and water-related strategies, so we have also made him available so that we can support planning in Tunisia and possibly then figure out how our companies can cooperate on that plan. This has been a dramatic year for Tunisia, with peaks of 50 degrees and severe drought due to evaporation, however, there are a whole series of interventions that can be done such as involving Italian companies.
In the agricultural sector with respect to African productions, there was competition with each other, and this created a form of protection in terms of duties or failure to have export agreements with so many nations. We then need to resolve these issues and cooperate, without letting ourselves go into competition that does not hold up if it is done on prices. We can help raise quality, and this is the spirit in which our companies have confronted each other."
Masaf Minister Francesco Lollobrigida during the press point in Tunis.
"Today there are entities that import training, quality models, new technologies. We will then work on a technical table to go into the details of what the two ministries will do and the collaboration between the respective research institutes.
We do not do business, but we support businesses. We then leave it to entrepreneurs to discuss among themselves which business to work on.
We do not present ourselves individually as ministers but as Sistema Italia. The Meloni government comes as a team to deal with any topic in a multifaceted way, because there is no topic that can be dealt with exclusively."