Cooperation: €60 million for projects in Africa and Asia

ROME, Italy, July 1, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- At a meeting chaired by Deputy Foreign Minister with the remit for International Cooperation, Lapo Pistelli, announced the Italian Cooperation's decision to put a total of €60 million toward health, education and infrastructure projects in Africa and Asia. He also spoke of innovative financing instruments for cooperation.

Pistelli, Cooperation changes gear and considers new forms of partnership

“We are promoting agricultural development in Ethiopia, and we have given €5 million to consolidate Afghan institutions and €3 million to Mozambique for education”, Pistelli explained, illustrating the most important initiatives launched and adding that “the Italian Cooperation is changing gear and considering innovative forms of partnership and financing such as matching and blending, instruments known and used for some time now by international organisations and our European partners but that we have lagged behind on”.

Somalia, Mozambique, Eritrea, Lebanon and Afghanistan among recipients

The recipients of the €28 million in donations and €32 million in assistance loans include Somalia, Mozambique, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Lebanon, North Korea and Myanmar. “A review is under way, during which we are going to have to select clearer criteria for identifying priority countries through deeper political analysis within a broader cooperation policy strategy”, the Deputy Minister added, underscoring that precisely this “will be the topic of the next Steering Committee meeting planned for September”.