Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani inaugurated the so-called “Sala Export” at the Foreign Ministry today, a permanent facility serving Italian companies. “With the Sala Export,” he said, “we are strengthening growth diplomacy and placing our companies at the centre of Foreign Ministry’s action, thus ensuring an operational point of reference and ongoing assistance even in crisis situations.”
The facility is a further step in the reform of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is designed to be a stable structure supporting the national production system. It houses the Economic Observatory for Foreign Trade and the Task Forces dedicated to companies operating in the main crisis areas, including the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the Strait of Hormuz.
It also coordinates the content of the portal Piano-export.gov.it and strengthens the connection between industry associations and the diplomatic-consular network, also serving as an operational platform for organizing major events dedicated to internationalization.
At its inauguration, Minister Tajani co-chaired an operational meeting on the situation in the Strait of Hormuz with the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. The meeting allowed to analyse the potential impacts on energy and trade supply chains and to strengthen inter-institutional coordination to support Italian companies exposed to geopolitical risks in the region.
The need to ensure constant monitoring of developments and to strengthen business support tools was shared, also through the full use of the diplomatic-consular network and the tools of the Italian System to support internationalization.
The initiative is part of a broader framework of initiatives that includes politically-led business missions, internationalization programs promoted by ITA, CDP, and SACE, and dedicated SIMEST tools for strategic markets, as well as the Action Plan for Exports to High-Potential Non-EU Markets.
2025 ended with positive results for Italian exports, which grew by 3.3% to over €643 billion. Against that backdrop, Minister Tajani announced the launch, in the coming months, of a process to engage with the national manufacturing sector through three events leading up to the National Export Conference, scheduled for the end of the year. The first event will be held at the end of April in Turin, involving companies and associations from Northern Italy.
