Venice, 1 July 2008 - Source: Press Agency of Unioncamere Veneto

Enterprises and banks are to cooperate for Veneto internationalization.
The themes developed during the conference “L’ internazionalizzazione del Veneto: quali opportunità per le banche e quali prospettive per le imprese venete?”¹, organized by Unioncamere Veneto and ABI – Veneto Agency, were synergy, development and future outlook.

Federico Tessari, president of Unioncamere Veneto, and Ferdinando Brandi, president of the Veneto agency of ABI, were the ones to present the international scene.
The conference day was opened by Gian Angelo Bellati, director of Unioncamere Veneto, and, among the others, it saw the participation of Claudio Miotto, president of Confartigianato Veneto; Fabio Fiorello, policy officer of financial services at the European Commission; Massimo Carraro, regional director of Unicredit; Giuseppe Cuccurese, of Rete Estera Intesa Sanpaolo; Stefano Depoliti, of Banca Popolare Vicenza, and Fabrizio Rossi, Confindustria Veneto’s delegate dealing with internationalization.

Veneto ranks second in Italy as for exports (€ 49.5 billion, +7% compared to 2006), and a trade balance of over € 10 billion. Moreover, it marks one of the highest bankarisation rates.

Recent data on the credit sector, published by Unioncamere Veneto and ABI, highlighted that bank branches reached the amount of 3,551 units in December 2007, with a 3% increase compared to December 2006, and a rate equal to more than 2.8% on a national scale.

The trend growth of granted loans was +10.5%, nearly one percentage point higher than the national +9.6%.

Federico Tessari, president of Unioncamere Veneto, underlined that: “It’s a given that Veneto ranks second  among the most internationalized regions in Italy.

Veneto enterprises with shareholdings abroad are nearly 900, equal to the 15.4% of national total, while foreign enterprises that are shareholders of Veneto enterprises are 2,245, employ about 103 thousand employeesand register over € 19 billion of turnover.

These data underline the importance of multinational expansion for Veneto enterprises. From a team point of view, banks, rather than customers, should be partners of exporting enterprises and establish a business scouting on country risk.

Indeed, our enterprises represent a system to create profits, not apt to rest on their laurel or survive through triangulations, thus they should reduce the risk threshold“.

The banking system plays a fundamental role in supporting the exports and productive development of Veneto enterprises.

Ferdinando Brandi, president of the Veneto agency of ABI, explained that: “Banks and enterprises must intensify their cooperation. Italy is the country of micro-enterprises, and Veneto the land of internationalization. New markets have been opened in 2007, mainly in Russia, and banks have the task to help enterprises by supporting their internationalization“.

“The banking world had better invest on a big scale in difficult economies such as India, Australia, China and Russia.” – Fabrizio Rossi, Confindustria Veneto’s delegate in charge of internationalization told – “Our enterprises, here, face problems connected with culture, law and language.

But these countries are going to register the highest growth rates in their GDPs during the next years. Now, on the other hand, we are late compared to our competitors.

Nevertheless, for enterprises it is preferable to invest more on training and human resources”.

For more information:
Ufficio Stampa Unioncamere del Veneto – Eurosportello
Giacomo Garbisa
Tel.: 041 0999305 – Cell.: 347 3386715
ufficio.stampa@ven.camcom.it