Rome, 5 November 2025 - La Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provincesled by President Massimiliano Fedriga, e Confindustriarepresented by Barbara Cimmino, Vice President for Export and Investment Attraction and Chairman of the Foreign Investors Advisory Board of Confindustria (ABIE), and by Annalisa Sassi, President of the Council of Regional Representatives (CRR), signed today, in Trieste on the occasion of 'Selecting Italy 2025', the Operational lines of collaboration for attracting foreign investments. The purpose of this signature is to consolidate a structured and lasting institutional collaboration aimed at promoting economic growth, business competitiveness and the relaunch of investments in Italy, and at enhancing the contribution of cohesion policy to the country's development.

The core of the understanding is to enhance the role of the territories in the attraction and retention of foreign investments, strengthening the collaboration between the Conference, the Advisory Board for Foreign Investors (ABIE) and the Observatory for Foreign Enterprises (OIE); involving the regional representations of the Confindustria system, united in the CRR, to promote a widespread culture of attractiveness of foreign capital companies; encouraging administrative simplification through the digitalisation of processes.

The parties undertake to organise meetings at regional level to strengthen the dialogue between institutional and entrepreneurial actors; to cooperate through the Foreign Business Observatory to identify local competitiveness factors, production specialisations and regional innovation ecosystems. Among the priorities, an experimental project of digital simplification to overcome the main bureaucratic bottlenecks in regional authorisation processes for foreign investments, improving transparency and decision-making times, in order to develop common recommendations to be represented at national level

Collaboration will extend to the valorisation of events such as 'Selecting Italy' promoted by the Conference of Regions and the ABIE Annual Meeting promoted by Confindustria, to strengthen the image of Italy as a competitive and reliable destination for foreign investors and present a cohesive and credible institutional front. Particular attention will be devoted to the Single European Economic Zone (ZES), a strategic lever for the development of southern Italy.

A Permanent Working Groupcomposed of representatives of the regions, ABIE and the CRR, which will monitor the activities and draw up an annual progress report.

"Today we are starting a new phase," emphasised Barbara Cimmino, Vice President of Confindustria - structured coordination between ABIE and the Conference of Regions on the topic of foreign investments. Our Foreign Business Observatory will provide analyses and tools to assess the potential of the territories, which are fundamental for political and economic decisions, also through the identification of factors that limit the development of production activities, promoting solutions based on the digitalisation of processes. Communication will also be central, to enhance the contribution and role of foreign companies in the territories. A shared path that aims to attract and consolidate foreign investments in Italy, which today represent over 35% of exports of goods and more than 1.7 million employees."

'We want to intensify the collaboration between regions and the industrial system so that Italy is even more attractive and competitive in the eyes of foreign investors,' he said. Massimiliano Fedriga, President of the Conference of Regions. "We have chosen to focus on clear objectives: enhancing the experiences of companies already present in the country, promoting a simpler and more digital administrative environment, and building a stable and coordinated system of relations between institutions, entrepreneurs, and investors. I would like to thank Confindustria, and in particular Vice-Presidents Barbara Cimmino and Annalisa Sassi, for having shared operational working lines that will allow us to take concrete steps forward in a national policy of attracting foreign investment that is vital for the growth of companies and territories".

"The cooperation between Confindustria and the Conference of Regions," said the Vice President Annalisa Sassi - represents an opportunity to transform the needs of territories into concrete strategies for competitiveness and growth. The Regional Representations of Confindustria, thanks to their rooting in the territories, will play a leading role in this process, helping to build a dialogue with regional institutions and identify concrete solutions to the strategic priorities of local development. There are many challenges to face together, starting with the future of cohesion policy, for a balanced and competitive growth of the country'.