A common and concrete effort by Government, local institutions and the business world to coordinate our country’s internationalisation policies and strategies to best effect. Placing promotional initiatives and instruments for analysis and market penetration on a systematic footing. And focusing financial resources on specific, agreed objectives.
These were the topics discussed at the first meeting of the “Control panel for International Italy”, chaired by Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi and the Minister for Economic Development, Infrastructure and Transport, Corrado Passera.
The Panel is the operational instrument that will enable more effective coordination of Italy’s internationalisation policies. Today’s meeting was attended by the principal government and economic actors, at both national and regional levels, playing a key role on this front. They included: the Minister for Regional Affairs, Tourism and Sport, Piero Gnudi; the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies, Mario Catania; the President of Marche Region, Gian Mario Spacca, representing the Conference of Regions and the Autonomous Provinces; the President of Confindustria, Giorgio Squinzi; the President of Unioncamere, Ferruccio Dardanello; a member of the Executive Board of the Italian Banking Association, Guido Rosa; the President of RETE Imprese Italia (Italian Business Network), Giorgio Guerrini; and the President of the Alliance of Italian Cooperatives, Luigi Marino.
The main decisions taken at today’s meeting of the Panel can be summed up as follows:
1) A common strategy for promotional activities abroad
The agency for international trade, ICE, with the relevant offices of the Foreign Ministry and Ministry for Economic Development (MED), is completing a mapping exercise of the international markets. This will identify the areas for, and best methods of, intervention and develop Italy’s commercial priorities on the basis of the indicators determining their appeal for “System Italy”.
This will make it possible to activate a strategy to promote our country system, a strategy that truly serves the needs of the various business categories.
The promotional activity will be based on:
– closer coordination between central government and local institutions;
– a focusing of financial resources on long-term, high profile initiatives, the aim being to create a critical mass of resources available to the national, local, public and private sector actors involved;
– the dissemination of e-commerce;
– research into new penetration strategies through ad hoc distribution models and linkages with distribution systems and platforms in the various markets;
– the development of new forms of “export finance” with the involvement of SACE, SIMEST, the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (Deposits and Loans Fund) and the banking system.
The initiatives will place a special focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
2) Rationalization of the Italian network abroad and coordination of the work of Ministries, Regions and Chambers of Commerce
Italy’s network abroad is being reorganized around the coordination role played by our embassies, on the basis of certain key criteria: market size and countries’ growth potential; the composition of our exports by sector; and our historic presence in the country concerned.
This will make it possible to guide our promotional and exporting activity towards the countries with the greatest potential for growth. It will also facilitate access to countries where, whether in view of their distance from Italy or for other reasons, our companies struggle most to “go it alone”.
Another key point of the rationalisation will be the need to use common, agreed spaces for all those Italian structures whose remit, in supporting internationalisation, includes export promotion. This will strongly encourage the integration of the various functions – for example, the integration of the network of Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad with that of the ICE – while also enabling significant economic savings.
3) Increasing the appeal of inward investment
The stock of inward investment to Italy is consistently lower than into other European countries. It is necessary, therefore, to implement a strategic project to attract, set up and maintain inward investment to our country. A special working group with representatives from the MFA, the MED, the Ministry for the Economy and Finance (MEF), the Department for Regional Affairs, Tourism and Sport and the ICE has been set up for this purpose. With the involvement of the other actors in the Control Panel, the working group’s task is to quickly draw up a proposal on how best to strengthen our existing inward investment structures and initiatives.
“All of Italy’s key actors in the export sector sat down today at the same table to draw up common strategies, goals and working arrangements”.
These were the words of Ministers Giulio Terzi and Corrado Passera, who added: “In spite of the international crisis, Italian exports continue to grow and to support the domestic economy. We are Europe’s second manufacturing country and the world’s 8th exporting power, and it is vital that we defend our share of global trade. That is why the task of the executive, and of all the country’s productive forces, must be to help boost this important source of growth and development –to maximum effect”.
We need to identify the most important markets and then act in full synergy to promote our companies’ products, and we need to support our businesses on their path to internationalisation”. The two ministers concluded that “working together and with great determination on this front, as we are indeed doing, means contributing to the common good of our country”.
