Around 150 participants from public institutions, enterprises, banks, the European Commission and experts from CEI Member States, gathered in Milan on 15 November for the CEI Business and Experts Forum Infrastructural and multimodal connectivity as factor of development and integration.
The event was organised under the Italian CEI Presidency by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in association with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport as well as by the CEI-Executive Secretariat with the support of Assolombarda.
The four working sessions were introduced by Vice President of Assolombarda, Alessandro Spada, and opened by Minister of Infrastructure and Transport, Paola De Micheli; Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Stefano Buffagni and CEI Secretary General Roberto Antonione.
Minister De Micheli highlighted that Infrastructure has a fundamental role to play in connecting Italy to Europe, and the rest of the world, and is actually an essential instrument to support the economies of all countries. […] There is an opportunity to enter into real partnerships with the CEI countries to make big investments. I am thinking in particular of the role of the Italian port and the railway connections;
The participants had the chance to analyse the development potential of land (road and railway networks) and sea connections, as well as projects for ports, strengthening economic relations and trade flows with the CEI countries also in light of the potential development of large global land and sea trade routes. Special attention was also paid to macro-regional policies and sustainable technological solutions, transit connections as well as financial instruments for the realisation of connectivity projects in the CEI area.
This Forum, which is a follow-up to the “Declaration of Trieste” adopted by the Foreign Ministries of the CEI Member States on 12 June this year, constitutes a first step towards our goal to strengthen the CEI Economic Dimension by enhancing regional cooperation in the framework of infrastructural connectivity, said SG Antonione.
