COVID-19: India raises mutual recognition of CoWIN vaccine certificate with Italy

At the 21st session of the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation (JCEC) with Italy, India raised several issues including the mutual recognition of CoWIN vaccine certificate and opening up of travel restrictions, the commerce ministry informed on Saturday.

A total of 15 countries in the European Union (EU) have now recognized the Covishield vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University for travellers. Belgium is the latest EU nation to recognise the Covishield.

An official release said that Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy Luigi Di Maio co-chaired the virtual session on July 9.

"Both sides held extensive discussions on bilateral trade and investment and economic cooperation in the areas of Food Processing, Textiles, Leather, Railways, Start-ups and promotion of SMEs which play a crucial role in economic growth and employment generation. The bilateral market access issues and non-tariff barriers were also discussed to facilitate trade and investment," the release said.

The progress on the outcomes of the India-EU leaders Summit in Porto, Portugal was also reviewed, it added.

The Indian side also raised the issues of Mutual recognition of CoWIN Vaccine Certificate and opening up of Travel restrictions, longer duration of Business Visas and Portability of social security benefits of Indians working in Italy, the ministry said.

Following the India-Italy JCEC G2G Meeting, a G2B Session focusing on Energy partnership was held virtually in the presence of the two Ministers.

During the meeting, three Indian companies and three Italian companies (made presentations focusing on the areas of green economy, clean technology and promotion of use of renewable energy for grid-based multi-energy systems.

During the Session, both the Ministers reiterated the vision laid down by the Prime Ministers of India and Italy, under the Plan of Action adopted on 6th November 2020, to promote energy transition, leveraging technology and climate partnerships.

"They underscored the pioneering role played by India and Italy at the multi-lateral fora as early adopters of ambitious clean energy targets and invited the private and public sectors of both countries to explore synergies to further enhance mutual energy capacities," the release said.

Earlier, in February 2019, the 20th India-Italy Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation (JCEC) was held in New Delhi, during which India and Italy discussed ways to increase cooperation in engineering, infrastructure and agriculture in a bid to promote trade and investments between the countries.