There is a positive relationship between digital technologies, openness to foreign markets and exports. A particularly significant relationship for Italian small and medium-sized enterprises, in which digital can facilitate international relations. Today SMEs can find valid support in the collaboration between public bodies and large companies called to intercept and understand how their characteristics can be used to relaunch the country's economic growth through exports. These were the central themes addressed and explored during the 'Digital4export' workshop attended by Giuliano Poletti, minister of Labor and social policies, Ivan Lo Bello, president of Unioncamere, Gabriele Piccini, country chairman Italy of Unicredit, and Diego Ciulli, manager Google policy and government affairs.
“Economic growth and the possibility of creating new quality jobs – said Poletti – also pass through the increase in the capacity of companies to play a growing role on international markets. Digital represents an essential lever in this direction: in particular, SMEs can benefit from the opportunities offered by innovation to reach new customers all over the world. Fostering the spread of digital means, of course, equipping young people with the necessary skills, through targeted training interventions. Our challenge is to contribute to the digitization of the country by focusing on Youth Guarantee kids. The experience that we have started with Crescere in Digitale, in collaboration with Google and Unioncamere, is giving positive results and testifies to the great interest of young people and businesses who, in the Go International program of Unicredit, can find real support for starting an internationalization strategy”.
Lo Bello found that “between 2011 and 2014, online searches for made in Italy products grew by 22%. This means that the desire for Italy is constantly increasing on the web. Against this, only one out of 5 Italian manufacturing companies exports. To reach potential consumers around the world, digital therefore represents the fastest and most practicable way for our SMEs. To implement this revolution, together with Google we have focused on raising awareness of businesses and training young people on the advantages of digitization in terms of competitiveness and employability. With the Crescere in digitale programme, implemented as part of the Youth Guarantee initiative of the Ministry of Labour, we are training around 50.000 young people, with the aim of bringing 6 of them to carry out 3 internships, so that they can spend, within companies who host them, the digital skills acquired. In this context, I see the possibility of developing synergies also with Unicredit, making the most of the opportunities offered by the Go International! initiative. within the Crescere in digitale project for young people and businesses that want to exploit the potential of the web to export”.
“We were among the first to talk to companies about the relationship between exports and digitization – underlined Piccini – by launching the Go International! training program in 2014. In just over a year and a half, almost 6 companies have taken part in our free courses, taking advantage of 30 hours of training, of which over 10 on digitisation, e-commerce and internationalisation, including through seminars organized in collaboration with Google. With UniCredit International we have launched coaching and support courses abroad for our companies and organized both real and virtual meetings between foreign buyers and Italian sellers. From 2009 to today there have been over 40 B2B meetings attended by 3 companies from various sectors from food & beverage, to the home system, to fashion and tourism. Since mid-2015 we have launched a new virtual B2B mode with a first pilot carried out on the wine&food sector. Since 2012, all of this has allowed us to accompany over 22 companies abroad and our goal is to accompany another 30 by 2018".
Lastly, according to Ciulli, “Italy is by nature an exporting country, but still today only a fraction of our production system is internationalised. Thanks to digital platforms, SMEs can access a global market: analyze the markets, contact consumers, and sell all over the world. The main barrier to the use of the web by SMEs lies in digital skills. This is why we are committed to training 2 million Europeans with digital skills by 2017. In Italy we also do this by betting on unemployed young people, with the Crescere in Digitale programme, together with the Ministry of Labor and Unioncamere”.
