Six weeks before the start of Expo 2025 Osaka, the Consulate General of Italy in Osaka has published a guide entitled 'Doing Business in Kansai,' with the aim of offering Italian companies an overview of investment opportunities and economic-commercial and scientific-technological collaborations in the region. In addition to outlining the most relevant aspects of Kansai's economy and emphasising its strategic role as an 'innovation hub' in the Asian and global context, the publication provides a series of useful information on the tax system, facilities for foreign investment, and a list of contacts of relevant bodies and institutions.
The guide underlines how Kansai is one of the most dynamic and innovative areas in Japan: with a population of over 20 million inhabitants and a GDP equivalent to that of South Korea, the 15th largest economy in the world, it stands out for being, after the Tokyo metropolitan area, the second largest economy in Japan. Among the sectors of particular relevance,' underlines the Consul General of Italy in Osaka, Marco Prencipe, 'are life science, where Kansai is considered the leading region at national level, the "green economy" and semiconductors.
In the preface to the guide, Italy's ambassador to Japan Gianluigi Benedetti emphasised the 'close and friendly relationship that has linked Italy and Japan for over 150 years and that is also characterised today by the sharing of common values, policies and objectives that are very similar even within the G7 and G20'. The Head of Diplomacy recalled the initiative of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and then-Premier Fumio Kishida to raise the level of bilateral relations to strategic partnership from January 2023. A decision, Benedetti added, that "opened a 'new era' - Shin Jidai - whose long-term objectives were clearly defined in an Action Plan approved on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Puglia. Referring to the forthcoming Universal Expo to be held in Osaka from 13 April to 13 October, the ambassador pointed out that 'Expo 2025 will be a great showcase for enhancing Italian cultural, scientific and technological excellence, but also an opportunity to create new economic-commercial collaborations'.
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