Between 13 and 16 December the cream of Italian industry together with representatives of the Government and some Italian Regions will cross India in a trade mission organised by the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade. In two stopovers, the first in New Delhi and the second in Mumbai, Italy will present to the Indian market the production sectors which have created the Made in Italy legend worldwide: fashion, agri-foodstuffs, furnishing and design, environmentally sustainable construction, renewable energy, engineering and logistics and ports. Over 200 businesses will take part from highly industrialised regions such as Friuli Venezia Giulia, the Autonomous Province of Trento, Liguria, Marche, Tuscany and Piedmont. The trade mission will have a strongly business oriented character, which will also include a high profile institutional element with the presence of the Minister for Economic Development, Claudio Scajola, and numerous regional presidents and councillors. The purpose of the initiative is to strengthen economic co-operation between Italian and Indian businesses, promoting the creation of commercial and industrial opportunities between businesses in the two countries in strategic sectors chosen by the regions themselves.

This will take place in a packed program, which provides above all for many business-to-business meetings between potential partners, in addition to the general meetings. More specifically, the three day trade mission will open in New Delhi in the presence of representatives of central and regional government with a Governmental Forum entitled “Italy and its Regions: new opportunities for Italo-Indian partnership”, after which may follow meetings between institutional authorities, with the involvement of Italian regions and numerous Indian states, with the purpose of outlining collaboration projects. Among the engagements arranged for the Mumbai stopover are technical seminars aimed at illustrating the characteristics of Italian businesses to a selected audience of businessmen, experts in technology, senior public managers and Indian business associations. These will centre on the main themes of contracts, supply chain networks, technology and professional education. Great attention will therefore also be paid in Mumbai above all to bi-lateral meetings between businesses, which will allow direct comparisons to be drawn between Made in Italy and Indian businesses.

Among the sectors which will be present at the trade mission will be those which are really representative of Italian industrial and business traditions. Beginning with furnishing, furniture and design, in which 9% of Italian manufacturing industry is engaged, in more than 33 thousand small and medium sized businesses. More than half of this sector’s turnover is from abroad, with an increase of more than 30% in exports to China and India in 2008. This is followed by the agri-foodstuffs industry, which has always been synonymous throughout the world with the Mediterranean diet. This sector has a production network of 66 thousand small and medium businesses and in 2008 experienced a growth of 8.7% in exports. Another leading Made in Italy sector is textiles and clothing, which has made Italian fashion unique throughout the world, and what is more, achieved Euro 14 billion in exports in 2008. There will also be an important delegation from the engineering and automation industries, to supply technological machinery of established quality to Indian production industries which are in continual ferment. Finally, the logistics and environmentally sustainable construction sectors together with the renewable energy industry complete the picture of the Italian industrial sectors which will present the quality guarantee of Made in Italy to potential partners in the Indian market.