The Italian National Day this year is taking place in a time of tensions for Pakistan. Let me nevertheless express on this occasion my warmest wishes to the members of the Italian Community in Pakistan as well as to our Pakistani and Foreign Friends. We are, all of us, very close to whole Pakistan in these difficult days but especially to the IDPs of the Swat Valley and the neighbouring regions.
I had the pleasure to receive myself with Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Minister Sitara Imran, an airplane from Italy, carrying relief goods of vital importance such as generators, water purification plants, food and medicines. We are ready to contribute in the next months in these emergency efforts together with other European Partners and all the Friends of Democratic Pakistan. We have full confidence in the ability of the Pakistani Government to face the new difficult challenge as it did on the occasion of the recent earthquake in Kashmir. The reassuring face of General Nadeem, who was so prominent to co-ordinate the efforts for the rehabilitation of Kashmir, is there again as a guarantee that the same success will be achieved in the Swat Valley and in the neighbouring areas.
But of course, emergency is only part of the problem. Reconstruction is a bigger challenge. Italy would also like to be part of this effort. Some initiatives are already underway in the context of Debt Swap Program of One Hundred Million Dollars we have with Pakistan.
We had for more than fifty years in the Swat Valley and Archeological Mission that became the symbol of the presence of Italy in the region and in Pakistan itself. We had three generations of archeologists in Saidu Sharif. The Swat Valley emerged from their studies as a cross road of civilisations from Neolitic Times to the present.
The Italian archeologists could provide informations on the history of the region through the millennia. Well, our ambition now is to transform the Archeological Mission in a Center for Italian Archeological Studies on Gandhara. We would like this Center to become a symbol of the reconstruction of Swat and our experts are working hard with the experts of the Pakistani Ministry of Culture to make the dream a reality. We need an understanding of the past to be creative for the future.
Another significant project that is underway in the context of the Debt Swap Program is somehow not less ambitious. We would like to bring olive trees to Swat and possibly to spread these trees of the Mediterranean Sea to Asia. Behind us, we have a long history of efforts. Some of them go back to the times of the Raj. Our experts found in the local archives a document from the British Political Agent of the time on the development of olive trees in Malakand as a development of similar efforts at the end of the 19th century in Kashmir. Coming to more recent time, in the history of modern Pakistan, the Italian Government tried to give a contribution to the dream of growing olive trees in the Frontier Regions and to produce olive oil. The last Italian Mission working for this goal was in Peshawar during the 80s.
The leader of the present Italian Mission is a young and dynamic person, Mr Raffaele Del Cima. He could make a study on the regions that are more suitable for the cultivation of the olive trees and on the cultivars that are more suited for these regions.
It seems that the immense territory of Balochistan and the NWFP is the best suited for the cultivation of olive trees and the production of Olive Oil. As a result of these studies a first olive oil was produced in Peshawar in the beginning of this year.
It was a very good green olive oil and we used it at home in our salad. After these encouraging beginnings we would like, as soon as Swat is open for reconstruction, to invest intensively in this project and we hope to see very soon olive trees all over Swat Valley.
A third project which is underway in the framework of Debt Swap Program, has a similar mixture of utility and beauty, it is meant to make good use of the incredible natural resources of the Frontier Regions as well as Balochistan and in particular, marble and precious stones. If you draw a map, the regions most suitable for olive trees cultivation are also the regions of marble queries. Also this ambitious project has a long history behind. Pakistani businessman know Carrara and Verona, and have a longstanding co-operation with our industries of marble.
A wider view on what this co-operation could become was developed by a very far-sighted Pakistani Businessman, Mr Ihsan Ullah Khan, Chairman of PASDEC. The Pakistani Government fully supports the idea, which is to bring to Pakistan the Italian know-how and create joint ventures between Italy and Pakistani businessmen that could have a global competitiveness.
The symbols of this ambitious view should be the two marble towns, one out of Karachi in the direction of Balochistan (the first factories of marble are already there since three years and are ready to expand) and another marble town out of Islamabad in the direction of Peshawar (this marble town should be started very soon and we hope its inauguration will be at the highest level).
We need to give our friendship for Pakistan and now for the displaced people of Swat a concrete and visible substance. Our people back home should learn to see through the anonymous pictures of TV and identify friendly faces with whom to work.
We should not only talk of big figures and cold statistics but of specific projects done by real people and all of us, we should have the pleasure of seeing the development of the projects. A beautiful region such as Swat Valley should go back to its natural splendor and make a big stride towards modernisation.
Italy has now the presidency of the G8 Group and a meeting of the G8 Group will be held in Trieste on June 26 at the level of Foreign Ministers on the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the participation of some of the neighbouring countries. Hopefully this meeting will contribute to strength the resolve of the G8 countries to support Pakistan in its efforts of reconstruction of Swat and Neighbouring Regions, as well as the creation of corridors of development going from the Frontier Regions of Pakistan to Afghanistan.
Emergency means that we should act now and fast. But reconstruction should bring us to consider the long term implications of our commitment. Italy has announced two additional important programs that are looking for the stabilisation and development of NWFP and Balochistan.
We are finalising a 40 Million Euro programme for Micro Credit in Rural Areas and this could help to provide the financial means needed for the first efforts of reconstruction and development. In Tokyo we announced another important 20 Million Euro program for vocational training. We should not only provide modern machineries for economic development but we should also help the Pakistani workers to use these machineries and to be proficient in new industrial sectors.
I would like to mention one last point that gives a flavour of our co-operation with Pakistan. Health Sector touches the primary needs of the population and we are engaged in it. The Pakistani Health Minister, H.E. Jakhrani met in Rome his counterpart, and they discussed all the range of the projects of co-operation in health field. An important development will be a joint venture between Italian and Pakistani companies for the production in Pakistan of vaccines.
Another great initiative is due to the Italian Dr Faulkner who is promoting with his Pakistani counterparts modern strategies in the Pakistani Hospitals for the cure of Thalaxemia. More than 50,000 Pakistani Children are effected by Thalaxemia and the bone marrow transplant is the only way to save their lives.
We are finalising a big project in the framework of Debt Swap Program for the development of a modern park in the Northern Areas. We are developing these project with a number of Pakistani partners including the Korakoram University.
Our counterparts in the Economic Affairs Division, are helping us together with local authorities to identify some new projects for reconstruction of Swat and neighbouring regions. In this perspective what it is now needed, is to encourage the direct relationship between the local population, that will be the beneficiaries of these projects and the institutions and companies that in Italy will be the main promoters of the projects.
For this reason the Pakistani Embassy in Rome, and its very competent and fine Ambassador H.E. Ms Tasneem Aslam is organising with the Italian Foreign Ministry a meeting in Rome on July 2nd between Italian and Pakistan Institutions and companies to provide an opportunity to discuss the scope of the projects of the co-operation.
An invitation was sent to one of the most active members of the local government of the NWFP, that is, Ms Sitara Imran, Minister for Social Welfare and Women Development. She will bring hopefully, to the meeting a direct understanding of the needs of the local population and specially the expectations of the women.
It is my pleasure to take the occasion of National Day to mention the centennial of the Duca Degli Abruzzi expedition to K2. In 1909, it was the beginning of a love story between Italy and the mountains of the K2. We still have beautiful photos in black and white that were taken during that expedition by Vittorio Sella.
It gives a deep feeling of the beauty of the nature and its majesty. In 1954, another Italian expedition reached, first in the world, the peak of the K2. Since than there was an active involvement from our Italian mountaineers with the Northern Areas. With this view of the mountains, we would like to express our warmest wishes on the occasion of our National Day for the Italians in Pakistan as well as our Pakistani friends.
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