(Adnkronos) – Foreign minister Antonio Tajani will on Tuesday chair a pioneering event in Rome to look at strategies and priorities for internationalising Italy’s “crucial” fashion industry – a sector which already accounts for over an eighth of national exports, said a foreign ministry statement.
Tajani, will preside over the launch event of Days of Italian Fashion in the World at Villa Madama, where an accord is set to be inked with Italy’s main trade associations, according the statement.
“The fashion system is of crucial importance to our economy and is of strategic value in promoting the Italian brand in global markets,” the statement cited Tajani as saying.
“Therefore, we want to support this sector in a concrete way, through growth diplomacy: tomorrow the Fashion Table for internationalisation will meet for the first time,” Tajani said.
A Protocol will be signed with Italy’s ten main trade associations, and the event will unveil Days of Italian Fashion in the World, to be held by the foreign ministry’s more than 300 diplomatic representations worldwide, Tajani said.
The ceremony will be attended by the presidents of the main trade associations, the president of Italy’s exports agency (ICE), Matteo Zoppas, and representatives of Italy’s tax police (Guardia di Finanza).
A Memorandum of Understanding will also be signed between the foreign ministry and the trade associations, which will set the institutional framework for deepening collaboration between the public and private sectors, the statement said.
The MoU also envisages cooperation with the Guardia di Finanza to develop training projects abroad aimed at preventing and combating counterfeiting, the statement added.
The Italian fashion sector contains 62,000 companies, with 565,500 employees and a total turnover of 102.1 billion euros, the statement noted.
In the first 10 months of last year, the value of exports reached 69.89 billion euros, a 2% increase from the same period in 2023, making Italy the second largest exporter in the world after China.
The fashion sector accounts for 13% of total Italian exports, said the statement.
