The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, is today in Veneto for a full day dedicated to business and employment, during which he has met with several of the region’s leading industrial players. “Veneto is one of Italy’s most export-driven industrial regions, with over 418,000 active companies and exports amounting to EUR 80.2 billion in 2024,” Tajani recalled. “Exports account for 41.4% of the regional GDP and 13% of the national total, confirming the central role of foreign trade in the region’s development”.
The mission began yesterday evening with a visit to the San Benedetto production plant in Scorzè. This morning, the Minister held a meeting with entrepreneurs from the Province of Treviso, during which the regional export performance for the first half of 2025 was also discussed, having exceeded EUR 40 billion.
He then visited the Mermec plant in Badoere di Morgano—an excellence in technologies for railway, aeronautical and space infrastructure—where he met with management and staff. Mermec has taken part on several occasions in the international business forums organised by the Italian Foreign Ministry in recent months.
This was followed by a meeting with the management of GEOX in Montebelluna, a long-established company within the region’s “sports system” industrial district and a successful example of how advanced technology and manufacturing remain decisive assets for strengthening Italy’s global competitiveness.
The day will conclude with Tajani’s participation in the General Assembly of Confindustria Veneto Est—an opportunity for dialogue with industry representatives from Treviso, Padua, Venice and Rovigo—during which the Minister will reiterate the objective of the Export Action Plan for high-potential non-EU markets: achieving EUR 700 billion in exports by the end of the legislative term.
Tajani underlined to the companies he met that “these meetings enable me to understand your needs and suggestions at a time when the reform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is about to enter into force. The Ministry will operate with two main missions: foreign policy, which will continue to be the core task of our diplomats, and, increasingly, the mission of the ‘Diplomacy of Growth’. Around the world, our embassies will become ‘representative offices’ for Italian exports, coordinating the work of ITA, SACE, SIMEST and CDP to support Italian companies”.
The Minister also recalled that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the natural and accessible interlocutor for all relations with the European Commission and other EU institutions: “Europe is a friend to Italian industry and workers, but it must be understood and engaged with, in order to contribute to shaping the decisions that will affect us. This is a commitment that Italian companies must pursue in an increasingly systematic way”.
