“We, the Foreign Ministry together with Italian enterprises, continue to do teamwork together to make Milan, Lombardy and Italy win the challenge,” said Angelino Alfano, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in addressing the meeting of Assolombarda’s Advisory Board today in Milan.
The Minister confirmed the Foreign Ministry’s intention to fully support Italian companies’ foreign relations, also through the diplomatic and consular network which, the minister said, is “a full-fledged strategic asset made available to Brand Italy, both in attracting and making investments in Italy and in fostering the penetration and expansion of Italian exports on markets worldwide.”
Through the Situation Room for Internationalisation, the Government supported the Plan for the Extraordinary Promotion of Made-in-Italy Products and to Attract Investments by financing it with an additional 300 million euros for the 2015-2017 three-year period.
“Economic diplomacy – recalled Mr Alfano – has already contributed to producing more than 1% of GDP in 2015 and generating 234,000 jobs, almost 1% of total employment.”
The Minister’s address to the Advisory Board also offered the opportunity to analyse Milan’s potential in attracting new investments and international financial services.
Milan, the capital of a region that attracts 90% of multinational corporations and 60% of foreign investment in Italy, “is already effectively at the heart of Europe” Mr Alfano said.
