Undersecretary Manlio Di Stefano spoke today at the webinar “Markets lives, focus on France”, organised by MAECI (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International cooperation) and ICE (Italian Trade Agency) Agency in collaboration with the Embassy and ICE Office in Paris. The President of ICE Ferro and the Director-General Luongo and the Italian Ambassador, Teresa Castaldo, also spoke. The event was attended by over 1400 Italian companies, mainly SMEs, interested in the French market.
As highlighted at the opening by Undersecretary Di Stefano, “France is Italy’s second-largest trading partner after Germany. Italy, in turn, is the second partner of France and Germany; an interesting symmetry that makes us understand the importance and mutual interest between us, also due to a similar social and economic-productive organisation with a prevalence of SMEs”.
The Undersecretary recalled that “today’s Webinar concludes a cycle of 13 webinars that began in Beijing and continued in Moscow, New Delhi, Madrid, Berlin, Dubai, Sao Paulo, Tokyo, New York, just to name the main ones. This cycle, entitled “Live Markets”, is part of the vast framework of measures that have been taken by our Government to support businesses in this unprecedented situation. The Webinars are certainly proof of how we can make a system innovatively and have a tangible impact on our productive sector. More than 16,000 companies have registered for these webinars, interested in growing and expanding on international markets”.
“Both MAECI-MiSE reform, which has brought the competences of foreign trade from the Ministry of Economic Development to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since January 1, and the need for social distancing due to the Coronavirus, have promoted digitalisation, information and online training projects. This situation also has positive aspects, and we intend to maintain them with a long-term commitment”. – concluded Di Stefano – “We live, and we will live the hardest phase of our economy, but I am sure that, together, we will make, as always. I will be at your side together with the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I believe that the collaboration between State and companies can be fruitful for the Italian relaunch. We can proceed hand in hand, all together, now that the “restart” is getting closer”.
