Italian business is interested in Kazakhstan – exclusive interview with Agenzia Nova founder Fabio Squillante
In strive for global integration, the TV and Radio Complex of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan is expanding its international ties by concluding a memorandum of media partnership with Agenzia Nova, well-known news agency of Italy. This became the 19th partnership agreement of the state media holding with the world's leading mass-media. Director General of Agenzia Nova Fabio Squillante shared his views on this new stage of cooperation in an exclusive interview with Kazinform News Agency.
Mr. Squillante, the TV and Radio Complex of the President of Kazakhstan and Agenzia Nova have signed today a memorandum of mutual understanding and cooperation. How do you see further development of our cooperation?
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the Kazakh President’s TV and Radio Complex both for cooperation, and for hospitality and attention shown to me. Our company, Agenzia Nova, sets a goal of establishing international ties. This is especially important for the country like Italy, given the lack of natural resources and our dependence on imported raw materials for production. International, economic, political and social events have a huge impact not only on our foreign policy, but also on our economy and the daily life of ordinary citizens.
There is no agency in Italy today that would cover international events in detail. Previously, this function was performed by ANSA (Italian national news agency), but its activities were reduced, and now they publish rather little international news. So, I decided to set up a company to publish around 850 news materials on international events every day to provide Italy's political and economic elite with up-to-date information about what is happening in the world.
We constantly strive to establish cooperation with agencies from different countries. Cooperation with Kazakhstan is of particular importance for us, as it is the largest and most dynamic country in Central Asia. Our countries have already established close bilateral relations, which is proved by the exchange of visits of our Presidents. Italian companies have been operating here, in Kazakhstan, for a long time. Therefore, we expect accurate, unbiased and relevant information both about Kazakhstan and entire Central Asia from the cooperation with Kazinform, as it is the largest news agency in this region.
In your opinion, what is the difference between Central Asian media and European ones? What peculiarities would you point out in the development of Kazakh news agencies?
Actually, I can’t answer this question precisely, although I am well acquainted with the countries of the former Soviet Union and have travelled a lot to these places, including Kazakhstan, which I have visited more than once. I have also worked as a correspondent in Moscow for 7 years. However, I am not very familiar with the Kazakh media, except for Kazinform agency, since we have been reading and using your information for a long time.
But speaking from I have seen here over the past few days, I have noticed that not only the media, but the entire country is developing at a rapid pace.
You said that your readership includes political and economic elites. Are you talking about Italy or Europe also?
We publish information in Italian and nine more languages, including English, French, Spanish, Germany, Arabic, Russian, Romanian, Croatian, and Serbian. Our materials are available to everyone on our website. However, they make up a small share of all the information. Around 1,300 materials, including articles, photos and videos, are published daily. Up to 100 articles and news are published on the website on a daily basis. Each piece of information comes along with photos and videos. Our content is consumed not only in Italy but also in Europe and other countries, especially in Arab countries. They closely follow our publications there.
News published by Agenzia Nova are being cited by Arabic media outlets, especially in North African. Moreover, our materials are regularly monitored by TV and satellite channels such as Al Jazeera. There is a certain share of readers in America as well.
But since our news are about politics and economics only, our website’s visitors for the most part are journalists, foreign politicians, managers and students interested in these subjects. We have a great deal of readers from Europe, including England, France and Spain.
Do you think European readers will be interested in reading news about Kazakhstan and Central Asia? What topics they will be interested in, in particular?
I think that information about Kazakhstan and Central Asia will be interesting mostly for Italian enterprises, as many of our ordinary readers are far from the region and know little about it. Our audience is closer to countries such as England, Spain and France. Italian readers even have little interest in countries such as Poland and Romania due to historic ties.
However, there is a strong interest of business in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Our officials and representatives of ministries of foreign affairs, infrastructure and economic sector follow events that take place in Central Asian region and they need to stay abreast of what is happening there.
It is worth to note that Agenzia Nova runs on a subscription system, meaning we provide information exclusively to our subscribers, namely establishments, enterprises and public institutions. It’s the audience our Agency targets. Our core philosophy is to open a window to the world for Italian officials, politicians and business.
Agenzia Nova is the largest Italian-language source of information in Europe, the Balkans, Middle East and Africa and the leading Italian agency covering international policy and economy. The Agency is headquartered in Rome and publishes more than 1,000 materials a day.
