On the occasion of the National Export Conference in Milan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, signed two Memoranda of Understanding with Emanuele Orsini, President of Confindustria and Giorgio Mercuri, Vice-President of Confcooperative. The agreements establish a structured collaboration to enhance the economic and commercial training of diplomatic personnel engaged in supporting the internationalisation of Italian businesses.
The Memoranda provide for in-depth training focused on specific countries, markets and strategic Made in Italy supply chains. The programmes will be tailored according to the diplomats’ assigned postings. Training activities, aimed at diplomatic staff with commercial responsibilities as well as other Ministry personnel, will include thematic seminars, exchanges with business leaders and visits to production facilities. These initiatives will foster first-hand knowledge of Italy’s industrial and cooperative sectors, as well as the international presence of Italian enterprises.
Through the Memorandum with Confindustria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation seeks to strengthen coordination with the associative network of the Italian industrial system and with companies most active in international markets. The agreement with Confcooperative, which represents 16,000 enterprises, 3.3 million members and over 550,000 employees, plays a central role in the agri-food supply chains of Made in Italy. This initiative aims to support access to foreign markets, address non-tariff barriers and accompany the international growth of cooperatives.
Both agreements reinforce institutional cooperation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Italy’s international presence and contribute to leveraging opportunities in emerging markets, with particular attention to Africa and the initiatives of the Mattei Plan. The initiatives form part of a broader strategy to promote an increasingly integrated and effective economic diplomacy.
