On the occasion of the Third National Conference on Export and Business Internationalization, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Antonio Tajani, signed two Memorandums of Understanding with Emanuele Orsini, President of Confindustria, and Giorgio Mercuri, Vice President of Confcooperative, designed to launch a structured collaboration on the economic and commercial training of diplomatic personnel engaged in supporting the internationalization of Italian companies.
The agreements envisage in-depth economic and commercial training on specific countries, markets, and strategic Made in Italy supply chains, defined based on the diplomats’ destinations.
Through the Memorandum with Confindustria, the Foreign Ministry aims to strengthen coordination with the association network of the Italian industrial system and with the companies most involved in international markets. The collaboration aims to develop training programs for diplomatic personnel, senior professionals, and officials. The training activities will include meetings with representatives of Confindustria itself, as well as with the main industry associations interested in the various foreign markets. The training program will also include field trips to the regions generating significant export flows to the countries or geographical areas where the officials will be assigned. These visits will be organized jointly with regional or provincial Confindustria associations and will include visits to leading companies in the most representative sectors of our exports to the selected markets.
The Memorandum with Confcooperative, which represents 16,000 companies, 3.3 million members, and over 550,000 employees, plays a central role in the Made in Italy agri-food supply chains. It specifically aims to support access to foreign markets, address non-tariff barriers, and assist cooperatives’ international growth.
The collaboration will promote first-hand knowledge of companies and production chains that represent Made in Italy and explore their development needs in foreign markets. It will also strengthen collaboration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Confcooperative, thus creating a network of direct relations and operational contacts between the Foreign Ministry staff, companies, and industry associations affiliated with the Confederation to support the internationalization of companies.
The training programs will consist of visits organized jointly with Confcooperative to local organizations of excellence, each time focusing on different regions.
The two Memorandums strengthen institutional collaboration between the Foreign Ministry and the Italian economy and help leverage the opportunities provided by emerging markets, with particular attention to Africa and the initiatives of the Mattei Plan, with a view to achieve increasingly integrated and effective Economic Diplomacy.
A Center of Excellence for Training and International Cooperation in Florence
A Center of Excellence for Training and International Cooperation will be established in Florence, in the historic complex of the former Overseas Agronomic Institute (IAO). Its aim is to support the internationalization of companies and strengthen development cooperation.
The Center will be conceived as a strategic tool for supporting Italian companies, particularly SMEs, in foreign markets, by also strengthening legal immigration channels that meet the needs of the national productive system. At the same time, it will contribute to the stability of partner countries and the training of skilled labour, in conjunction with the projects of the Mattei Plan for Africa.
The initiative will be implemented through public-private partnerships and in collaboration with international organizations based in Italy, such as the International Training Center of the ILO (International Labour Organization) in Turin.
The Center’s activities will focus on some strategic areas. First, the training of experts in internationalization processes, key figures – such as export managers – to strengthen the presence of Italian companies in foreign markets, thanks to skills in managing export processes, trade relations, and access to financial instruments. Another focus will be on the sustainable management of water resources, a priority for Italian international action and central to the Mattei Plan for Africa.
