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.