Investor Visa Italy Investor Visa Italy / 3 | Seite 12

INVESTOR VISA ITALY
POINTS OF VIEW
Yossi Bar:
Israel is in love with Italian
economic opportunities and culture
Interview by Edoardo Bonatti
10
Yossi Bar is an Israeli journalist in Italy for I.P.B.C.- Kol Yisrael Radio and
Maariv. He was the President of the Foreign Press Association over the 2006-
2007 period.
INVESTORVISA – What is your personal story as a foreign press journalist
in Italy?
BAR – I arrived in Italy in 1983, although various interruptions led me to return
repeatedly to Israel for family reasons. Initially, I was a correspondent for
Yedioth Ahronoth, one of the leading Israeli newspapers as well as for the public
radio. Then I got married, I had my daughter Naomi, and I decided to stay, even
at the expense of my salary.
As a member of the Foreign Press Association for many years, and thanks
to your tenure as President, you were able to observe your colleagues in
Italy: what do you think is the most widespread perception and attitude
towards Italy among foreign journalists?
Most of my colleagues are happy here, a lot depends on their personal
background and their country of origin, but they have generally found a
welcoming country and are glad to be correspondents in Italy. The figure of the
correspondent has changed a lot in these last years. In the past, a
correspondent was sent to Rome to cover the whole of southern Europe and,
sometimes, also for Middle Eastern countries, given Italy’s importance as a
strategic lynchpin and international centre of interest. With the increasing
importance of the internet, and therefore the collapse newspapers’ sales, and
the proliferation of fake news, the role of the journalist is going through a crisis
(at least for those employed in printed media – radio and television continue
to resist to this trend). Journalists often would like to remain as foreign
correspondents but with the decline in sales and revenues, newspapers tend
to abolish the figure of the permanent correspondent, preferring freelancers or
local journalists. This, sad as it may be, brings down the level of investigations
and journalism. European neighbours are obviously very interested in Italy,
while most remote countries are mainly interested in global news, such as
those related to the Vatican, which could affect their countries.
Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs Moavero visited Israel on 28 January,
meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. During the visit, the Minister
recognized that, despite not perfect, the relationship between Italy and
Israel is more than solid seventy years after the establishment of
diplomatic relations, which anniversary was celebrated on 6 February.
What is your personal assessment of the political relations between the
two countries?
Relations have seen an improvement over the last twenty years, and we can
consider their current state as very positive. It is difficult to understand the
foreign policy of this government, given that Italy is currently very focused on
its internal problems. A part of the government, the right wing, is certainly
more politically close to the Israeli government and is in favour of maintaining
warm relations with Jerusalem, while the other part seems colder. This makes
the government’s attitude unclear, not only on Israel but also on the Middle
East as a whole. It must be said that even if it is difficult to interpret this political
state of affairs, economic and cultural relations proceed anyway, building on
what has been done in the past. We could say that bilateral relations are going
through a period of economic and cultural flourishing: for example, Italy is the
first rank country in the eyes of Israeli tourists.
As far as economic relations are concerned, we can observe how, in 2016,
Italy is the eighth country for exports to Israel while Rome is the
thirteenth destination for Jerusalem’s exports. What future do you see
for the Italian-Israeli economic relations and in which areas do you
believe there is room for improvement?
Economic relations have experienced a strong development in the past,
reaching almost 4 billion in trade, with Italy registering a trade surplus. Israel
remains a very open country to international trade and in particular to that
with Italy. With regard to imports into Israel, a remarkable component is
represented by the raw materials used by approximately seven hundred Italian
restaurants in the country that use them to run their business. Another very
active segment is linked to the military industry and aeronautics overall: in
these days, with the support of the Italian Ministry of Economic Development
and the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Polytechnic University of Bari
and the Technion of Haifa signed a cooperation agreement to collaborate in the
fields of aerospace technologies, cybersecurity and the internet of things