The Milanese stage of Italy Goal 2025, roadshow promoted by Intesa Sanpaolo Imi Corporate & Investment Banking Division Led by Mauro Micillo, it brought together approximately 90 representatives of Lombardy's business community. The initiative, which has already reached Vicenza, Florence, Lonato del Garda, Turin, and Naples, aims to build a bridge between finance and business, offering insights and concrete tools to address an international economic climate marked by inflation and trade tensions.
Risk management was discussed during the event, digitization and opportunities offered by artificial intelligence for business growth and resilience.
Lombardy between resilience and diversification
Le Lombard companies they confirm their resilience and ability to diversify, both in terms of markets and products. According to Michael Sorrentino, Head of Imi Cib Italian Network of Intesa Sanpaolo “Lombardy confirms its centrality for the country's economy: an ecosystem in which industry, finance and innovation meet, generating new opportunities for companies and promoting theopening towards international markets".
In Lombardy, the Italian Network of the Imi Cib Division has 66 professionals active in Milan, Bergamo, Como, and Monza, and supports approximately 4.000 companies belonging to over 750 groups, with average cash investments in 2024 exceeding 23 billion euros, equal to approximately 29% of the Italian Network's total volumes.
Exports and the US market: opportunities and caution
Il ResearchDepartment Intesa Sanpaolo underlines how the Lombard economy can count on the solidity of the manufacturing and on export, with a growing focus on alternative markets to traditional US partners. In 2024, Lombardy's exports to the US exceeded 8 billion euros, with mechanics (2.778 million euros), pharmaceutica (1.178 million) ed electrical engineering (1.065 million) at the forefront. Followed by metal products (964 million), clothing (902 million), spinneret leather (830 million) e cosmetics (779 million).
The American market's share of total exports is particularly high for the leather (15%) and cosmetics (13%) sectors, approximately 12% for pharmaceuticals and electrical engineering, and 11% for clothing. Lombardy's trade surplus with the US in 2024 was €8,5 billion.
However, i duties and protectionist policies push companies to seek customers in new markets, including Poland, China, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia. At the same time, there is growing interest in opening new sales and production facilities in the United States.
Industrial innovation and digitalization
Beyond the numbers, the event offered a glimpse into theindustrial innovationLombardy is a productive mosaic that ranges from the fashion system to chemicals, from aerospace to cosmetics, with twenty-three industrial districts and three technological hubs monitored by Intesa Sanpaolo. The push towards digitization , risk management, also supported by theartificial intelligence, represents a recurring theme, especially for companies looking towards internationalization.
The most innovative sectors include the metalworking industry, the fashion industry, chemicals, electronics, electrical engineering, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, aerospace, rubber and plastics, and agri-food. This productive mosaic contributes to Lombardy's economic resilience, enabling it to diversify its markets and products.
Future scenarios and next steps
According to internal analyses, the Italian and Lombardy economies will continue to benefit from consumption, the recovery of household purchasing power, lower interest rates, and the deployment of NRRP funds, with an acceleration expected in the two-year period 2025-2026, also thanks to the completion of construction for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The Obiettivo Italia 2025 roadshow will continue in next few weeks in Bologna and Rome, confirming the bank's intention to support Italian companies in an increasingly complex and competitive global context.
