Saudi, Italian joint committee to meet in Rome tomorrow

Meetings of the 9th session of the joint Saudi- Italian committee on economic and industrial cooperation will start in Rome tomorrow under the chairmanship of the Saudi minister of finance and the national economy Ibrahim al-Assaf and the Italian prime minister and acting foreign minister Silvio Perliskony.

In a statement quoted by the Saudi news agency yesterday, al-Assaf said that the meetings aim at developing relations between the two countries in all areas of bilateral cooperation especially in the economic, trade, investment and technical fields as well as cooperation between the Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Union, noting that an agreement on avoiding double taxation will be signed during the meetings.

Worthy mentioning that Italy is Saudi Arabia's fifth ranking trade partner in 2001 when the volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached 15 billion Saudi riyals and the trade balance is in the interests of Saudi Arabia.