FAO is grateful to the Government of Italy for providing 7 million euros to refurbish the agency’s headquarters

Rome – FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, today expressed his gratitude to Italy’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport for providing 7 million euros to support a major refurbishment of the agency’s Rome headquarters.

The plans include the restructuring and improvement of several areas, facilities and green areas serving FAO’s employees and visitors.

This is a historic agreement signed in record time with the Ministry for Infrastructure and Transport, in close cooperation with the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Italy to FAO, as for the first time FAO will be leading the works with funds from the Ministry for Infrastructure.

The funding which was announced today follows the signing in September 2023 of a Letter of Intent between the FAO Director-General and H.E. Matteo Salvini, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport of Italy to develop an extensive project aimed at upgrading the sustainability, security, efficiency and accessibility of FAO’s headquarters. Under that agreement Italy will support FAO with a total of 10 million euros over the next few years.

Following a 1949 decision by its Members, FAO, which was first established in 1945, moved its headquarters to its current premises in the Italian capital in 1951.