The Milan leg of the of the Roadshow “Italy for companies and with SMEs towards foreign markets” was a great success among the public, revealing great convergence of ideas and actions. This is the first evaluation made of the Roadshow which took place this morning in the offices of Assolombarda. It enlisted 40 new members, also thanks to other important events being held in Milan today.
The event was organised by ICE-Agenzia in partnership with other relevant local associations, and with the valuable support of the local sponsor, Unicredit.
Business Networks took centre stage and proved to be an effective tool to successfully support the internationalisation of enterprises. In Lombardy, 2,647 companies have already signed up with business networks although it is important for an ever-larger number of companies to be informed of and to join this type of project.
The Roadshow opened this morning with remarks by Michele Angelo Verna, Director General of Assolombarda Confindustria Milan Monza and Brianza. He said: “An appropriate approach to international markets requires a clear corporate strategy, specific skills and adequate resources.”
Piergiorgio Borgogelli, Director General of ICE-Agenzia, conveyed to the participants the greetings of the authorities and then passed the floor to Ivan Scalfarotto, Undersecretary of State for Economic Development, who confirmed the government’s commitment to promote Brand Italy around the world and to put to effective use the funds earmarked for the internationalisation of enterprises.
Alessandra Lanza – Partner Prometeia – opened the technical session, along with Fulvio D’Alvia, Director of RetImpresa and Nicola Lener, the head of the Office for the Internationalisation of Enterprises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, by giving an overview of the opportunities and the critical points of international markets.
Mr D’Alvia said: “Business networks are a simple instrument at the service of SMEs. They not only represent an opportunity to internationalise but also to innovate. By way of example, 64% of the networks of manufacturing businesses are set up with the main aim of innovating and 59% in order to reach foreign markets, and of course many of them have opted to simultaneously pursue both goals.”
“A successful national corporate network is based on the capacity to build teamwork,” affirmed Mr Lener. He went on: “In these last few years, also thanks to the Situation Room, the Public Administration has fine-tuned this capacity, although it is evident that in order to be fully operational, the system must also envisage greater interaction between public institutions and companies – and today’s Roadshow goes precisely in this direction – and between companies themselves, which are in turn called on to acknowledge the need to build teamwork. The achievement of this goal is based on the business networks’ capacity to aggregate, which is supported by the targeted scouting actions conducted by the Foreign Ministry through its diplomatic and consular networks.”
The Roadshow “Italy for companies and with SMEs towards foreign markets” is sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and is promoted and supported by the Ministry of Economic Development, ICE-Agenzia, the export credit agency SACE and SIMEST, in addition to Confindustria, Unioncamere and Rete Imprese Italia.
