INVEST IN ITALY

The first of two stages of the US Global Roadshow “Invest in Italy” kicked off yesterday in New York, after those held in Turkey (October 2015) and Japan (November 2015) by ICE – agency that promotes the internationalisation of Italian companies, in line with the strategies of the Ministry for Economic Devel-opment. In the first stage held in New York, Deputy Minister, Carlo Calenda, the President of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Claudio Costamagna, and the President of the ICE Agency, Riccardo Monti, met approximately 30 potential investors between acquisition funds and private investors. The workshop “Italy Now: Investment, Opportunity, Impact”, in collaboration with Bloomberg, was of particular interest. Speakers included the Italian Ambassador to the US Claudio Bisogniero, Deputy Minister Calenda who spoke about the measures and policies of the Italian government aimed to attract and sustain foreign investment. Thereafter, the President of Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Claudio Costamagna, illustrated the strategic role of CDP in the process of attracting investments in Italy carried out in synergy with Unicredit, represented by the Global Chief Economist Erik Nielsen. On this occasion, the definition of a memorandum of understanding between General Electric Avio and the Ministry of Economic Development with the Piedmont, Campania and Puglia Regions was studied in detail. General Electric Avio intends to promote investments in the three Italian regions in research and development activities and production for about 200 million Euros. The delegation travelled then to San Francisco to take part in the second stage of the Roadshow. In the afternoon, in fact, the conference entitled “Healthcare: Italy on the move” took place in collaboration with the JP Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference, the prestigious international meeting dedicated to the eld of biotechnology and life sciences . The event, organized annually by JP Morgan, involves the most important global players in the industry, from big pharmaceutical companies to big international investors, and therefore is capable of catalyzing the attention on other events favorable to Italian companies .After Managing Director and Global Head Healthcare of JP Morgan Robert Huffines’ opening, Deputy Minister Calenda will address a very high profile audience to illustrate the policy measures adopted to benefit the Italian industrial sector and aimed to attract investments in Italy. To support this institutional presentation, a market survey on the state of, prospects and opportunities in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in Italy was carried out. This survey highlighted the opportunities offered by our country to foreign financial and industrial investments in particular. Speakers included Stefano Pessina, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, the largest global group pharmaceutical enterprise. At the end of the Deputy Minister’s presentation, a networking event was held involving about 25 Italian leading pharmaceutical companies (accountable in total for more than 10 billion Euros in sales) allowing them the possibility to confront themeselves with the most important international players. Further meetings with top executives of large innovative companies such as Google, Apple, Tesla, SpaceX and Illumina took place on January 14th and 15th.