Milan’s edition of WAIPA Conference involved more than 400 operators; 250 of them came from 80 different countries. Speakers shared views and opinions on opportunities during the global crisis and proposed guidelines aimed to boost and accelerate the recovery of the economy.
Carlo Sangalli, President of Milan Chamber of Commerce, showed full satisfaction for hosting such a prestigious event. He also added that “in the global network era, internationalization is not only about selling the product but also about selling a piece of the territory”.
Roberto Formigoni, President of Regione Lombardia reminded that, in Italy, the 41.7% of the foreign companies with Italian shareholding is located in Lombardy. As well as the 34.8% of the national employment rate and the 40.8% of the National turnover. As for Multinational Companies in Milan, “their number decreased a little, minus 2.1% compared to 2001, but with a slight increase in number of employees (+0.7%) and with a strong growth of the turnover (+44.7%). Today Lombardy is Italy’s first foreign investments attractor with a total business of 217 million of Euros, that is to say the 55% of the national rate”.
Waipa president, Alexandro Teixeira, during his presentation of the panels included in the agenda, underlined that ”investments promotion agencies face important challenges in a moment when international geopolitical balances are rapidly mutating. That’s because foreign investments are the real pillar of development”.