The meeting was held in Bologna between the President of the ICE Riccardo Monti and the top management of Confindustria Emilia-Romagna, represented by the President Maurizio Marchesini and the Internationalization Councilor Gino Cocchi, to illustrate the 2013 Export Program and collect the needs of companies in the region in terms of export and internationalisation.
In his speech, the President Maurizio Marchesini underlined how “In the current crisis scenario, exports and internationalization represent an indispensable factor for economic growth today”. Marchesini also presented some data on exports relating to the Region which reveal how Emilia-Romagna is the first region in Italy for the increase in exports over the last 10 years (+52.5%) and for per capita exports (10 euros per inhabitant).
The President of the ICE Agency, Riccardo Monti, focused on the central role of exports for the Italian economy. In fact, 2012 ended, for the first time in 10 years, with a surplus in the aggregate trade balance of around 8-10 billion euros. Monti also illustrated the recent changes to the internationalization support system for which we refer to our article "ICE presents the 2013-2015 National Export Plan: growth and exports to over 620 billion".
Finally, the Councilor for Internationalization Gino Cocchi reiterated the need to "team up the various protagonists of exports and internationalization, with shared planning and enhancing skills between the national and regional levels". In fact, according to Cocchi, the role of institutions in internationalization processes must not be limited to information assistance but must go beyond "favoring bottom-up incubation of SME projects abroad".
The complete press release is available at this address.
