Internationalisation
For long time ABI has played an active role in supporting banks’ and enterprises’ efforts to acquire an international dimension. In 2005, in cooperation with the business world and the institutions, ABI launched a special project aimed at organising, together with the Confederation of Italian Industry and the Foreign Trade Institute, missions abroad and events to promote [the image of] Italy at the international level.
The participation of the Italian banking sector raises the value of these initiatives by enabling the national economic system to present a united and credible front at the international level.
The new approach also enables ABI to pursue the following objectives:
• enhancing cooperation with other parties participating in the initiatives (in particular, not only the Foreign Trade Institute and the Confederation of Italian Industry, but also the Ministry for Foreign Affairs);
• improving business opportunities for enterprises participating in the initiatives thanks to the support offered by the banking sector. In fact, many banks attend the events in order to support and directly assist enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, in their bilateral meetings with foreign counterparts organised by the Foreign Trade Institute in the framework of these events;
• increasing opportunities for the banking system to do business in the foreign country visited by the mission or in other countries participating in the events (through the organisation of meetings with operators or local authorities to facilitate the acquisition of information on the conditions and opportunities for an Italian bank to establish or promote and develop cooperation agreements with local banks in that country);
• to begin or enhance collaborations with institutions and trade unions with the goal of developing joint initiatives promoting relations between banks and enterprises of the two countries.
To this end, since 2006, ABI has been organizing every year a Forum on Internationalization, in partnership with the Ministry for International Trade, the Foreign Trade Commission (ICE), Confindustria, the Italian Export Credit Agency (SACE) and the Italian Investment Agency (SIMEST). The Forum is addressed to the banking and business community and public institutions. Its main objective is to examine and discuss the internationalization of the banking system and the effectiveness of private and public financial support for the international development of Italian enterprises, outlining the current scenario and the challenges ahead for the players of the Italian economy (authorities, firms and banks).
The third edition of the ABI Forum on Internationalization, organized in cooperation with the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) and the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) was held last October in Rome and it was focused on Gulf countries, in order to strengthen economic and financial relations between Italy and Gulf region by seizing the remarkable business opportunities in the respective markets.
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Mission and events organised since 2004
Missions involving the entire national economic system, both those carried out in the past and those underway, concerning regions/countries of strategic importance for the national economy.
In particular, there are three areas in which all players should work jointly:
• Emerging markets
• Strategic areas closer to Europe
• “Bridge” markets in which to produce to serve third markets
In the light of this, since 2004, ABI has organised many missions in cooperation with the Foreign Trade Institute and the Confederation of Italian Industry and hosted many foreign delegations. It also organised a conference on the Mediterranean region, which included delegations from the 13 countries of the Mediterranean area.
These are the most notable missions and events organised by ABI:
China: December 2004
India: February 2005
Bulgaria: April 2005
Visit of a delegation from Jiangsu to Italy: April 2005
Turkey: November 2005
Mediterranean countries (Palermo): February 2006
Brazil: March 2006
United Arab Emirates: May 2006
China: September 2006
Visit of two delegations, from Brazil and from India: October-November 2006
Morocco: November 2006
Tunisia: January 2007
India: February 2007
Algeria: June 2007
South Africa: July 2007
Kazakhstan: October 2007
Visit of a delegation from Jiangsu to Italy: November 2007
Mexico: February 2008
Egypt: April 2008
Meeting with the Egyptian President Mubarak: April 5, 2008
Vietnam: November 2008
Visit of a delegation from Brazil to Italy: November 2008
Israel: November 2008
Upcoming events (first semester 2009): Russia and Mediterranean countries
Since 2005, 23 initiatives have been carried out with the participation of more than 200 Italian banks and more than 600 high level representatives of the banking sector supporting more than 5000 enterprises and institutions in 26 countries across four continents (about 28,000 B2B meetings have been organised). In order to finance exports and investments in the markets that are considered to be of strategic importance for the growth of our national economy, the banking sector allocated almost 40 billion euros, of which approximately 17 billion has already been spent; while 20 billion is still available to finance new business initiatives.
The majority of the total credit line that Italian banks made available – around 8 billion euros representing 0.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (this data refers to 2007) – was allocated to finance business initiatives in the Mediterranean region, which increasingly represents a strategic area for Italian enterprises.
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