“There is a growing interface between the central administrations and the precious foreign network we rely on”, Farnesina Secretary General Ambassador Michele Valensise explained to Pei News in the margins of the presentation of the 2015 ANCE Report on the presence of Italian construction firms around the world. “When I speak of central administrations I refer to the entire State administration”, the S-G underscored, “That means are the Ministry of Economic Development (Mise), ICE, SACE, SIMEST and all the others actively working shoulder to shoulder supporting the internationalisation of our firms. This is a positive fact that we and our colleagues in the other ministries are very pleased with”.
In confirmation of the ambassador’s words, ANCE presented its Report, whose data clearly show an important evolution in the foreign revenue of our firms abroad that is not a question of isolated examples but of a true 10-year trend. Contributing to these results has been that fact that “our network, our impetus, leans toward economic diplomacy”, the S-G pointed out. “Diplomacy today is increasingly a diplomacy in support of the Italian economic system abroad, obviously without neglecting our political duties. This aspect has become a natural part of how we work, thanks to a refinement and modernisation of work methods both centrally and across the diplomatic network”.
Various “Country System” initiatives have been launched in this context, including a “road show” for the internationalisation of Italian enterprise, in which public and private actors present our firms with opportunities and the means for accessing foreign markets, and which made 21 stops across the country by within the first half of 2015”. “The road show is only one of the positive, concrete and effective examples that we could cite”, Valensise explained. “I have spoken today about infrastructure, which is a topic of major importance, not only in terms of the numbers we have seen presented – highly positive, with 10% annual growth over a series of periods and thus a true trend – but above all because our sector firms are committed to responding to the need for modernisation and integration among nations.
When you build a major bridge or canal, you also contribute to the goal of integration, which has obvious economic advantages but political-strategic ones as well. The work of Italian companies stabilises countries, areas and entire regions. It is, therefore, a sector that we are following with heightened attention, and we are more determined than ever to support our firms in that sector. We know that selling a bridge, a motorway or a metro-line is not like selling a consumer product. In the former case, there is an ever greater need for assistance”, Valensise concluded, “in as much as the initial interlocutors of the enterprise are governments”.
