On November 11, the Russian-Italian Industrial Forum was held online on the universal industrial platform “INNOPROM”.
The speakers of the session were Mr. Igor Caravaev, theTrade Representative of the Russian Federation in the Italian Republic, Mr. Alexey Orlov, the First Deputy Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, Mr. Ernesto Firdengi, the President of “Confindustria Russia”, Ms. Marisa Florio, the Director of the Moscow Representative Office of IRTP and Mr. Artyom Polulyakh, the Vice-President of Sales of “Danieli Volga”, LLC.
The Forum was moderated by Mr. Suren Vardanyan, the Vice President of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Opening the session, he stressed the importance of discussing issues of cooperation between the business communities of the two countries, not only concerning technological chains, but also the general state of the economy during the pandemic and the role of Russia and Italy in helping to solve this global problem.
In his speech, the Trade Representative of the Russian Federation in the Italian Republic, Mr. Caravaev, emphasized the importance of Italy in Russian-European relations. In particular, the dimensions of foreign economic, trade and investment cooperation. As one may be aware, in 2019, Italy was in the seventh place in the total trade turnover with Russia, seventh place as the importer of Russian products, fifth place as the exporter of Russian products among other exporters from foreign countries.
The official said that despite the epidemiological situation, on October 14, it was possible to hold a face-to-face meeting of the Economic Council. The Minister of foreign affairs of the Italian Republic came to Moscow, visited the Innovation center “Skolkovo", where he was acquainted with the directions of innovations and technological developments.
According to Mr. Caravayev, the Council made a very important decision to promote the activities of the Russian-Italian Committee of Entrepreneurs, and the status of the Chairmanship of both the Russian and Italian sides was significantly enhansed. This will undoubtedly intensify the dialogue between the Russian and Italian business communities.
Unfortunately, according to the World Bank, Italy, although is among the 30 leading economies of the world, was the most affected by the pandemic. The decline in Italy's GDP will exceed 10%. And this will have a significant impact on all economic activity both on the territory of the Italian Republic and on the economic activity of Italian businessmen abroad.
"The total amount that the Italian government sends to support its exporters is about 1.4 billion euros," - said the Russian Trade Representative in Italy.
The First Deputy Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, Mr. Alexei Orlov, noted in his speech that despite the restrictive measures in place during the pandemic, the interest of Russian and Italian enterprises in economic, scientific and technological cooperation has not decreased.
"In the summer of 2021, we all very much hope that the main industrial exhibition of our country - “INNOPROM” - will be held in Ekaterinburg in a full-time format. It will be dedicated to the topic "Flexible production", - he said.
Mr. Orlov emphasized that Italy will be a partner - country in the exhibition, thus, for Italian companies the exhibition will be an opportunity to present their goods and services, as well as to become acquainted with the potential of Sverdlovsk and Russian enterprises.
Mr. Ernesto Ferlengi, the President of “Confindustria”, the Russian Association of Italian Industrialists, during the session of “Innoprom Online” expressed his concern that today there is a noticeable decline in business activity around the world. "According to estimates of the World Trade Organization, the volume of world trade in goods fell by 14.3% in only the second quarter of 2020," he said.
The pandemic has had a significant impact on trade between countries. The fall in the price of basic resources had an impact on trade in value: minus 21% projected for the second quarter of 2021," said Mr. Ferlengi..
The President of “Confindustria Russia” told that this trend did not bypass the Russian-Italian cooperation. In the first half of 2020, the trade turnover between Russia and Italy decreased by 20% to 8.4 billion euros. Exports play an important role in the economies of Russia and Italy, accounting for more than 25% of our countries' GDPs. Italian exports to Russia decreased by 6.7% in the first six months of this year, while Russian exports to Italy fell by 29.5% (largely due to lower energy prices).
The moderator of the session, Mr. Vardanyan, supported Mr. Ferlenga's speech, and agreed that the sanctions’ regimes are not at all beneficial to either Europe or Russia. He emphasized that the Russian side is ready to support Italian companies in their search for partners for localization of their presence, for organization of production in Russia.
The video recording of the online session is saved in the public access on the project’s website page. The general partner of the project “Innoprom online” is provided by the Government of the Sverdlovsk region.