Salerno is the city chosen to kick off the Italy for Companies Roadshow that arrives in the Campania region for the second time, after the stop in Naples in September 2014. The Roadshow is the initiative promoted by the Situation Room for Internationalisation, now at its 4th edition.
A total of ten stops are on schedule for 2017 (that add on to the 43 already made in 19 Italian regions): after Salerno, it will be the turn of Arezzo, Pescara, Syracuse, Turin, Bolzano, Terni, Verona, Pesaro and Florence.
More than 250 companies are present in Salerno to debate the Italian Country System’s internationalisation instruments and opportunities. The Foreign Ministry, represented by the Principal Director for the Internationalisation of the Country System and Territorial Autonomies, Carlo Formosa, takes the opportunity to remind companies of the need to unite in teamwork in Italy and abroad and to fully exploit the capacity to provide orientation and support of the network of Embassies and Consulates in the world. The alliance between economic diplomacy and enterprises never fails to give increasingly tangible and encouraging results.
Economic diplomacy contributes to producing 1.1% of GDP and generate 234,000 jobs
“The year that has just passed continued to be characterised by a strong drive to export among Italian companies: 417 billion euros worth of exports in 2016, with a trade balance surplus of almost 52 billion, show how international markets represent a key growth factor for the Italian economy and its enterprises,” said Carlo Formosa, the Foreign Ministry’s Principal Director for the Internationalisation of the Country System and Territorial Autonomies, on commenting the figures recently released by ISTAT. He went on: “In a geopolitical scenario that is as dynamic as it is uncertain, in which regional crises and protectionist shifts coexist with the extraordinary opportunities offered by the new emerging markets, the role of the Foreign Ministry is essential in orienting enterprises to operate on international markets. If we take a closer look, this is ever truer for smaller enterprises which, even if they often have a surplus production, are not sufficiently structured to face international markets with the adequate training, in the light of which guidance by the diplomatic and consular network can really make a difference.” On highlighting the results of a survey by Prometeia on the impact of economic diplomacy on growth, Mr Formosa concluded: “If we look at the substance and at the numbers, the Foreign Ministry and its diplomatic and consular network mainly assists small and medium-sized enterprises: 61% of the companies that have signed a contract or won a tender also thanks to our support are SMEs. Economic diplomacy has contributed to producing 1.1% of GDP and helped to create 234,000 jobs, also through the supply chain effect produced in Italy by internationalised companies that turned to us for assistance.”