Italy consistently ranks amongst the top four trade partners of Russia. Under the patronage of the Italian Commission numerous meeting are held annually and dozens of memorandums of agreement (MOA) are signed between the regions and cities of the two countries.

On the 20th of January 2016, an official visit was paid by the delegation of the Lombardy region led by the Vice-President Mr. Fabrizio Sala which was held at the Italian-Russian Business Conference “Made with Italy». This has become one of the most remarkable events of January. The event was organized by the Italian Commission of MCCI, The Department of foreign economic relations of Moscow and the Region of Lombardy (Italy).

The main agenda of this meeting was to discuss the Italian-Russian inter-regional cooperation.

The forum was taken part by Vice-Governor of the Lombardy region Fabrizio Sala, the Chairman of the MCCI Italian Commission Konstantin Krokhin, Director of the Moscow office of the Agency for promotion of Italian companies abroad and the development of trade exchange ICE pier Paolo Celeste, the President of CONFINDUSTRIA Russia (the Association of Italian business in Russia) Ernesto Ferlenghi, Senior Vice President Moscow trading-industrial chamber Vladimir Platonov, and also representatives of the city and the Airport of Bergamo, the official delegations from the Republic of Bashkortostan and Nizhny Novgorod region, representatives of the banking and industrial business in both countries.

Before the conference could commence, the negotiations between the delegation of Lombardy and the Russian regions took place. In which both the delegations discussed inter-regional cooperation and outlined a plan of action on preparation for signing of bilateral Agreements to enhance direct contacts and development of joint projects of businessmen from the Lombardy region, Moscow, Bashkortostan and Nizhny Novgorod region.

Constructive and productive exchange of views helped to set a positive and energetic pace for the whole discussion of the economic topics on the main event. The conference participants then discussed the issues of bilateral cooperation in machine-building and petrochemical industries, in the areas of production and processing of agricultural products, as well as in tourism and sports.

The main organizer and connoisseur of the Business Conference, Konstantin Krokhin in his speech mentioned that the participation of the Lombardy region as a partner is not coincidental. Lombardy holds a special place in the Italian economy. Big industries of this region were oriented to the Russian market. Lombardy region holds 16% of Italian companies and 60% of all representative offices of foreign companies in Italy. Even more, Lombardy is a second largest exhibition centre of Europe (on an average it goes up to 150 international exhibitions in a year). Lombardy contributes to 25% of Italian GDP.

Konstantin Krokhin also mentioned the special role of the MCCI Italian Commission in developing the cooperation between the regions on the principles of “Made with Italy”, as it was the support and promotion of Italian technology and innovations that made it possible. For example, in 2015 the first draft of car-sharing in Moscow "Делимобиль", that was started with the support of the  Italian private capital (an equivalent of the Italian EN(I)JOY), as well as the launch of direct “Low-cost” flights from Moscow to Bergamo (Milan). Today these projects are a clear example of successful investment cooperation between Lombardy and Moscow.

The conference became a new medium for an active inter-regional cooperation between Italy and Russia , for which the MCCI acted as moderator and associated on to a single platform, the representatives of several Russian regions and the largest and most economically developed area of the the area of the Apennine Peninsula.

The participants of the conference  encouraged Mr. Krokhin's idea to declare 2016 as the year of the Italian-Russian interregional cooperation.

 

 

Media about the event:

"City Council", February 1, 2016 - a report on Italy

http://www.ambmosca.esteri.it/ambasciata_mosca/it/ambasciata/news/dall-ambasciata/2016/01/missione-della-regione-lombardia.html

http://agiellenews.it/lombardia-f-sala-a-mosca-russia-partner-strategico/86458

http://www.mskagency.ru/materials/2522495

http://www.regione.lombardia.it/cs/Satellite?c=News&cid=1213778133594&childpagename=Regione%2FDetail&pagename=RGNWrapper

http://settimo.nuovaperiferia.it/2016/01/20/news-in/commercio-vice-presidente-regione-lombardia-a-mosca-incontra-governi-locali-300340.html

http://effemeride.it/la-lombardia-mosca-per-promuovere-il-made-italy/