Diplomacy for growth, attracting foreign investment, internationalisation of Italian firms. These will be the topics for the 10th Ambassador’s Conference taking place on 18 and 19 December at the Farnesina. An event which, this year more than ever, will focus on the role of Italian diplomats on the road to growth that Italy intends to embark upon to emerge from the economic crisis that has affected Europe. A road on which the promotion of “System Italy” will act as a cardinal point of the compass, as the title of the conference suggests: “Italy attracting the world: Italian diplomacy for investment in the ‘Country System’”.
Conference to be opened by Minister Bonino and Prime Minister Letta
A welcome address by the Secretary General, Ambassador Michele Valensise, will open the Conference, followed by speeches by Foreign Minister Emma Bonino and Prime Minister Enrico Letta. The afternoon programme includes an ad hoc session on diplomacy for growth, with the presence of several Italian ministers and the President of Confindustria, the industrialists’ confederation, Giorgio Squinzi. This will be followed by a another diplomatic-economic session on “Promoting public and private inward investment and internationalisation: the central role of Heads of Mission”. Participants will include the President of ICE/Italian Trade Agency, Riccardo Monti, and the Director General for Country Promotion, Andrea Meloni.
Closing address on Thursday by President Giorgio Napolitano
Thursday’s programme will open with the “Geographical Groups” sessions, which will be divided into thematic sub-sessions. Deputy Ministers Marta Dassù and Lapo Pistelli, and Under-Secretary Mario Giro, will take part in a debate with Italian diplomats on the major issues on the international agenda: the “Arab Reawakening”, the Eastern Partnership, relations with Latin America and trans-Atlantic relations.
Staffan De Mistura, the Italian Government’s Special Envoy for the question of the Italian marines held in India, will open the afternoon session. Next on the programme is a round table on EXPO 1015, followed by the closing address by the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano.
A meeting point for the diplomatic network and Italy’s political and economic leadership
This year’s Ambassador’s Conference will be the 10th in the history of the Republic. The event has become a traditional meeting point for Italian Heads of Mission throughout the world, the political authorities and the leaders of the country’s leading economic institutions. A meeting point which serves to implement the dialogue between the political and economic leadership and the diplomatic network, while helping to gain a better understanding of the work done by the 898 Italian diplomats representing our country in the 5 continents.
That work includes the classic tasks of diplomacy (representing Italy, dealing with visas, helping our citizens abroad, and much more). But this 10th Conference will be focusing on tasks that Minister Bonino has defined as one of Italy’s foreign policy goals: the commitment of the diplomatic-consular network to the internationalisation of “System Italy” and the attraction of inward investment.