2021 will be the year of recovery, especially in international trade. For made in Italy it is a train not to be missed and for this very reason Intesa Sanpaolo is organizing a series of meetings in favor of small and medium-sized enterprises to "educate" them on the best opportunities. The last focus was dedicated to Lombard SMEs (Lombardy produces a fifth of the national GDP), to which a study conducted by Deloitte on the economic performance of some partner countries, in this case Germany and Spain, was illustrated. This year a strong acceleration in international trade is expected for all world countries, with +7,5% in advanced economies and +9,2% in developing economies. With particular reference to Germany, to which Italy allocates about 12,5% of its exports, the data show a general recovery in the country, with the recovery index trend returning almost to pre-crisis levels at the end of 2021, mainly driven by retail sales and consumer confidence. For Spain, to which Italy allocates around 4,6% of its exports, a progressive recovery to pre-crisis levels is instead expected only at the end of the last quarter of 2022.
The 2021 program of the Smart International Tour, this year in its second edition, includes a cycle of 23 webinars aimed at corporate customers of the Banca dei Territori of Intesa Sanpaolo, led by Stefano Barrese, to support them in their international growth. The cycle of appointments generally focuses on 7 areas of interest for SMEs that want to grow in the foreign markets of Brazil, Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Spain, the United Arab Emirates and Romania. This initiative to support companies in the relaunch of economic activities in foreign markets also helps to implement one of the pillars of “Motore Italia”, the program recently launched by Intesa Sanpaolo to promote liquidity and investments in the sustainable and digital transition of companies and which makes over 13 billion euros of new credit available to Lombard companies.
“The Smart International Tour initiative – commented Anna Roscio, Intesa Sanpaolo Business Executive Sales&Marketing Director – bears witness to our fruitful collaboration with Deloitte in light of the growing interest in foreign markets by Italian companies with a view to an accelerated recovery. The internationalization paths are a cornerstone of Intesa Sanpaolo's strategy which remains the ideal interlocutor to support SMEs also for these objectives. The second edition of the initiative, which has reached its halfway stage, has recorded an excellent participation of entrepreneurs who have shown great interest in the topics covered with a focus on the economic restart and on the development prospects outlined in foreign markets. Already in the first 2020 edition we involved many SMEs and identified with them new business opportunities in Italy and abroad, despite the difficult context of the health emergency".
