Rome, 10 July 2024 - Ensuring maximum participation of Italian industrial system companies in Expo 2025 Osaka. This is the main objective of the Memorandum of Understanding signed today by Confindustria and the General Commissariat for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, in Rome at the Confindustria headquarters. The agreement will also make it possible to promote tourism and territories, support the internationalisation of production chains and attract investments, enhancing our technologies and Italian know-how. The agreement, signed by Barbara Cimmino, Confindustria Vice President for Export and Investment Attraction, and by Mario Vattani, Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, in view of the World Expo, consolidates the collaboration between the two institutions in developing connections between Italian companies and potential new foreign partners to facilitate the development of economic relations and trade agreements.
Also present at the meeting was Matteo Zoppas, President of the ICE Agency, to underline the Agency's commitment to the promotion of business activities on foreign markets. Support is fundamental to enhance the value of Made in Italy and contribute to the internationalisation of companies in the Asian area, of which Expo 2025 Osaka will be an important driving force.
 
"Identifying projects to be involved, in close connection with the Associations of the System, favouring the most significant ones in relation to the Asia-Pacific Area and the countries considered strategic, creating opportunities for meeting and sharing with associated companies, bodies, institutions, and academies with which the Commissariat has established collaboration agreements, promoting, in partnership with the public system, the organisation of outgoing and incoming missions to Japan to start direct collaborations with bodies and operators in the Area and encourage contacts between Italian companies and their counterparts of interest. These are some of the objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding signed today with the Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, Mario Vattani, which will see us engaged for the next few months in defining a shared plan of activities to facilitate the aggregation of resources and skills in the Italian business world, in which companies will be the real protagonists, in relation to the themes and projects of Italian participation in Expo 2025,' said the Vice President of Confindustria, Barbara Cimmino.

"For one semester, the Italian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka will be an effective tool for promoting our excellence in Japan and Asia, a region characterised by young, fast-growing markets," commented the Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, Amb. Mario Vattani. "In addition to dedicated spaces where it is possible to present projects and organise events, companies coming to Expo will find themselves supported by the services offered by a network of institutions and trade associations with which we have signed cooperation agreements in recent months. The partnership with Confindustria is an important element of this internationalisation path'.

For Matteo Zoppas, President ICE AgencyExpo 2025 Osaka is an event that combines promotion and development of Made in Italy, which represent the main activities of the ICE Agency. The World Expo is in fact a unique showcase for Italian products and for the growth of exports, not only in the local market but also in Japan and throughout the Asian continent. Agenzia ICE through its network of offices could contribute to the Osaka Expo by organising the incoming of qualified operators and buyers with the aim of creating moments of business matching and laying the foundations for further development of Italian companies in the area. In Japan, Made in Italy exports in 2023 reached 8 billion euro, made up of products of excellence in terms of quality, innovation and technology with great prospects for growth. Expo 2025 Osaka will therefore be an opportunity not to be missed to capitalise on the attractiveness of Made in Italy through the contribution that the entire Country System, represented by ICE, Sace, Simest and Cdp, together with the great commitment of the Government, will offer to the companies and associations that will participate. The best ambassador at the Expo of things beautiful and well made in Italy: Made in Italy'.

Expo 2025 will be held in Osaka from 13 April to 13 October 2025 under the theme 'Designing the society of the future for our lives'. Italy will present itself with a Pavilion designed by architect Mario Cucinella with the slogan 'Art Regenerates Life'. More than 30 million visitors are expected. This Universal Exposition will be an important opportunity of integrated promotion for Italian companies in the Asia-Pacific area in which to present the 'state of the art' of our country: from design to agro-food, from fashion to technology, from infrastructures and urban planning to energy, from science to industry with in-depth studies on aerospace, robotics, life sciences and high technology up to pharmaceuticals and biomedicals.