ROME, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi Di Maio on Thursday said Italy should strengthen its presence in countries with "mature" economies, while Guido de Vecchi from one of Italy's largest banks said innovative Italian businesses will not suffer from a lack of access to capital.
Di Maio and de Vecchi were among the headline speakers of the three-day "Made in Italy: The Restart" conference which concluded Thursday. The conference featured input from top analysts along with political and business leaders looking to map out the future of the Italian industry.
The virtual event, which got underway Tuesday, was jointly sponsored by the Italian financial newspaper Il Sole/24 Ore and the UK-based Financial Times.
Di Maio was the featured speaker on the final day of the conference when he said Italy "must strengthen itself in mature markets," going on to identify neighbors France and Germany, the United States, and major Asian markets including China and Japan. Di Maio pointed specifically to next month's China International Import Expo in Shanghai, where he said Italy would work to sign trade agreements in order to have greater access to Chinese markets.
"The work we are doing now to develop ties with Asian markets will produce substantial results for years," Di Maio said.
Meanwhile, de Vecchi, managing director of Intesa Sanpaolo Innovation Center, Italy's largest bank by market capitalization and the second-largest based on assets under its control, according to data from Italy's financial sector regulator, said his institution was always on the lookout for what he called "new business models" from Italian corporations.
"In the last business plan we set aside 6 billion euros (7.1 billion U.S. dollars) for 119 separate projects focusing on the circular economy, both in Italy and abroad," de Vecchi said, referring to a kind of cutting-edge economic development approach that uses byproducts of the industrial process for other industrial processes as a way to reduce waste and improve efficiency.
Pierroberto Folgiero, chief executive officer of engineering company Maire Tecnimont, echoed de Vecchi's point, saying that "economic innovation will be the engine that will help Italy's economy restart." He said his company was more interested than ever in projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or produce less waste and air pollution. "The future is a green future," he said.
Francesco Starace is the CEO and general manager of energy company Enel, a company that has bet big on green energy initiatives. At the conference, Starace said Italy should use a large part of the 209-billion-euro (247-billion-U.S. dollar) recovery package on renewable energy projects that can spark economic growth while reducing stress on the environment.
"The coronavirus pandemic allowed us to travel forward in time in a way," Starace said, referring to the need for energy autonomy and a healthier environment. "We can see the benefits of a future where there is less reliance on fossil fuels and more on renewable energy. We know it can be done, and this transformational period is when we should seize the moment."
For her part, Paola Pisano, Italy's Minister for Innovation and Technological Digitization, said the recovery package Starace spoke about would be used in part to help close the digital divide in Italy, to take public services online, and help more Italians have access to the Internet. She said initiatives along those lines would be launched on Feb. 28 next year. Enditem
