Washington, June 2, 2020. The Embassy of Italy in Washington organized an exceptional virtual meeting with institutions representing Italy’s “Sistema Italia” in the United States on a day as symbolic as June 2 to reflect on the developments of recent months, and to discuss plans for the future together.
The Embassy, Consulates, Italian Trade & Investment Agencies (ICE), Italian Cultural Institutes, National Tourism Board (ENIT), Bank of Italy and Chambers of Commerce highlighted the importance of teamwork in what is a difficult moment for our country, and underlined that in order to support recovery, Italy must be able to count not only on the unanimous effort and support of institutions, but also on the resilience of our businesses and of the US economy.
The meeting highlighted how the widespread endorsement of digitalization and drive towards innovation offers unique opportunities for our companies, as well as particularly attractive investment and collaboration potential.
The meeting also underscored how Italian companies, backed by a strong bilateral trade in excess of 100 billions USD in 2019, with a surplus of 33 billion USD, can take advantage of the demand for Made in Italy – still very high in the U.S. – by focusing on quality and investing in new distribution methods.
Ambassador Varricchio recalled how “at this stage, it is necessary to strengthen and intensify coordination while further focusing on an integrated approach to promoting Italy’s various assets in the US. We are here united on a virtual platform to set out the guidelines for future action and to relaunch Italy’s presence in the United States”.