This site uses technical, analytics and third-party cookies.
By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies.

Preferences cookies

Ambassador Varricchio delivers opening remarks at the Conference on Space Economics organized with the Italian Space Agency, and Bocconi and George Washington Universities, with guest remarks by the Executive Secretary of the National Space Council

On September 13, 2018 the Embassy of Italy in Washington DC hosted an event on cooperation in the space field and on the new frontiers in terms of investments, innovation, and international collaboration. “Space Economics: challanges and opportunities, Investment, Innovation and International partnerships” was organized in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency, the Space Economy Evaluation Lab of the Bocconi University School of Management and the Space Policy Institute of the George Washington University. The workshop highlighted the ongoing important evolutions in this sector, thanks to the increasingly relevant integration between the public and private sectors. It also stressed the necessity to define common international rules for the future development of the space economy.

In their opening remarks, the Ambassador of Italy, Armando Varricchio, and the Executive Secretary of the National Space Council of the White House, Scott Pace remembered the successful structured cooperation in the space field between Italy and the United States, two countries that are close friends and allies. In particular, Ambassador Varricchio remembered that space collaboration was one of the main topics mentioned by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during his meeting with President Trump at the White House in July. “A collaboration,” said Ambassador Varricchio, “that moves forward fast, looking at the future”, as demonstrated by the Italian Government decision to build the first Italian spaceport in Grottaglie, Apulia, connected to the American Space Station in New Mexico. The US Executive Secretary Scott Pace said “The U.S., Italy, and our allies will work together both in terms of advancing academics and research and in streamlining regulatory structures to enable our private sectors to push the bounds of our knowledge of the final frontier.”

At the end of the Conference (during which also the space attaché Roberto Vittori took the floor), the relationship between Italy and the United States in the space field witnessed a new development. The Space Economy Evaluation Lab of the Bocconi University School of Management and the Space Policy Institute of the George Washington University signed a partnership agreement that will create new opportunities to cooperate in the identification of policies for the aerospace sector.