The Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Manlio Di Stefano, today attended the National Assembly of Italian Cooperatives – Agri-food and Fishing Sector held in Rome together with the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Paola De Micheli, and the Undersecretary at the MIPAAF Giuseppe L’Abbate in representation of the Government.
The meeting focused on the importance of export for the members of the Alliance of Italian Cooperatives and expressed the hope for a closer coordination between institutional players within the Situation Room for Internationalisation.
“Internationalisation – said Undersecretary Di Stefano – is an essential requirement for our companies. Exports, the main driver of the Italian economy, account for almost one third of our GDP. On the part of the Government, we are committed to increasing the number of exporting companies, which now only account for less than 5% of the total, to consolidate mature markets like North America and Europe and to develop a strategy targeted on emerging markets in Asia (India, Japan, South Korea), South America, the MENA Countries and Africa. I propose to enhance the operational capacity of the Situation Room to make it more flexible and operational. The target for 2020 is to exceed 500 billion euros in exports.”
