The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio, addressed the General Assembly of the Confindustria Marmomacchine, emphasizing the importance of marble for Italy and reiterating his support for internationalization through the Export Cooperation Agreement and the Ministry and Marmomacchine.
The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation spoke to the members of the association via teleconference. He initially referred to the importance of marble and its timelessness, as a field of work, which has gone through all these years of many changes and innovations. For the upcoming Marmomac exhibition, he stressed that it is the leading event in the field of stone industry, internationally.
Luigi Di Maio then referred to the actions taken by the ministry to support the stone sector.
As he said: “In the last 18 months we have developed a new strategy to deal with the crisis due to the pandemic and to favor the recovery. The export agreement was signed by 46 parties, including ministries and partners in the category, and Confindustria, for which I am very grateful. An agreement that resulted in a dialogue.
We have six strategic pillars: communication. comprehensive promotion, education, e-commerce information, trade fair system and subsidized funding.
Among the projects undertaken by our ministry is a free academic program for smart exports, an export management tool for small businesses”.
Mr. Luigi Di Maio stressed the importance of exhibition programs, something that Italy attaches great importance to, as well as the financing of companies that export and want to expand into new markets.
“Exports increased by 4.6% in the first quarter of 2021, compared to 2020, we have very good numbers even compared to 2019, which was a positive year, a new very good news for us. The stone sector suffered because of the pandemic. But the numbers show even greater recovery in the coming months. “Our role in such a difficult time with challenges is to focus on our competitiveness internationally,” as he said.
