The Italian Trade Agency held a symposium in Tokyo on Nov. 18 to promote Japanese companies' direct investment in Italy, with businesses from Italy and Japan, as well as diplomats and politicians from Italy, discussing opportunities in the country.

The symposium was held at the ambassador's residence inside the Italian Embassy in Tokyo's Minato Ward. More than 60 Japanese businesspeople interested in investing in Italy listened to various speakers and joined discussions on investing in the country.

Italian Ambassador Domenico Giorgi provided the opening remarks to kick off the symposium.

"I'm very happy to have the opportunity to hold such an important event. We've held similar events to promote direct investment in Italy and many Japanese have participated in them. This wide participation indicates that many people are interested in Italy — and I'm very grateful for that — and underlines that the visit of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, last August, opens new perspectives also in this area," Giorgi said.

From the Japanese business side, Akira Shimizu, chair of the Planning & Coordinating Sub-Committee, Committee on Europe of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), greeted the audience and the delegation from Italy.

"My job is to arrange various business meetings for (Europeans) who come to Japan and I've exchanged opinions" with many Italian delegates, Shimizu said. "I'd like to promote dialogue between businesspeople of the two countries who are actively involved in the business scene."

He also said he would like to see an economic partnership agreement, or EPA, between Japan and the EU come into effect sometime soon as it is essential for the prosperity of both parties that barriers between the two countries be lifted.

Shimizu also spoke of examples of direct investment in Italy by Hitachi Ltd., the engineering company he works for, showing the audience and speakers that Hitachi has been active in contributing to bilateral business relationships.

The next speaker, Benedetto Della Vedova, the undersecretary of state of Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, delivered a presentation, titled "Renzi Government: A Comprehensive Strategy for Growth."

His main message is that many economic indices show Italy is recovering from the sovereign crisis that hit Europe over the past few years and the main reason for the recovery is governmental reforms initiated by Renzi.

GDP growth is forecast at 0.9 percent this year and 1.6 percent in 2016, which will mean Italy will catch up with the Eurozone average in about five years, he said. Exports rose 6.3 percent in July from a year ago, compared with Germany's 6.1 percent growth and France's 3.1 percent.

"The fact that exports have increased means the quality of Italy's manufacturers has gone up," he said, adding that improvement in the technology and automotive sectors is very important.

He then introduced the government's comprehensive reform plan, which includes reforms in political institutions, the labor market, the justice system, the banking and finance sectors, education and anticorruption.

The next speaker was Riccardo Monti, the president of Italian Trade Agency, whose presentation was about Italy's policies to attract foreign direct investment.

"Direct investment from Japan is not so much in terms of amount, but very important in content," Monti said, adding that Japanese investments include clean technology and other high-tech investments.

He showed a graph of Italy's exports, which clearly are on an uptrend, increasing 2.0 percent in 2014 and 5.0 percent in the first half of this year. Exports have increased particularly in the fisheries and pharmaceutical sectors, he added.

Monti said he is very optimistic because of the high potential for growth in Italian companies and the high-quality products they are making.

Of those companies, some have a need for fresh capital injection, he said. Japanese companies will find it attractive to invest in such companies that have high technology, he added.

There is also opportunity in real estate investment in Italy as land prices have potential to go up. One of his slides showed graphs of land price indices in Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Britain and the Eurozone and those in Italy have shown very modest increases since 2000, while others increased by wider margins.

Italy has taken various measures to make direct investment attractive for foreign companies. The central government and local governments are working together to support foreign companies, he said.

The next speaker, Stefano Nigro, who is in charge of direct investment in the Lombardy region, which counts Milan as its largest city, discussed investment opportunities in the area.

In his presentation, he showed a graph indicating the number of warehouse operators in major cities in Europe. Milan was by far the top city with more than 3,000 companies running warehouses, followed by about 1,200 in Tuscany and about 600 in Barcelona. This indicates the important role that Lombardy plays as a bridge between Europe and Mediterranean countries.

Lombardy has a strong presence in life sciences, as Milan is home to 26 percent of Italian biotechnology-related companies. Lombardy has four regions that are focused on the engineering and machinery sectors.

Additionally, Milan boasts the highest household Internet connectivity in Italy and one of the highest in Europe. Milan is home to 11,709 information and communication technology companies, or 10 percent of all such companies in Italy.

In the design and fashion industries, Milan generates 61 percent of those industries' revenue in Italy. There are more than 15,000 fashion companies in Lombardy, employing 45,000 people. Lombardy draws as many as 140,000 buyers and industry professionals during major fashion shows and other fashion industry events.

Nigro also introduced financial support for investors in Lombardy. For example, Lombardy subsidizes up to €1 million for competitive research and development. It has budgeted €48 million for the subsidy from 2013 to 2015. Investors also benefit from subsidies from the federal government and the EU.

The fourth speaker was Patrizia Bellofiore, trade and investment support services manager, Toscana Promozione, who discussed reasons for investing in Tuscany, where the largest city is Florence.

Tuscany, the birthplace of many Italian designers, including Salvatore Ferragamo and Gucci, provides a great business environment, Bellofiore said. It has three universities and five higher education institutions, with more than 8,000 new grads in technology and science every year. It has more than 400,000 companies and a trade surplus of €12 billion.

Within a 400-km radius of Tuscany, lies more than 10 percent of the EU market and three-quarters of the Italian market.

Procedures to establish a company are simple, he said. It takes only six days to register a company and only six steps are required to begin operating a company.

Tuscany's exports were €32 billion in 2014, making up 8 percent of the country's total exports. The region's imports was €20 billion.

More than 400 large foreign companies have made direct investments in Tuscany. They include GE Oil & Gas, Novartis, Continental AG, Yanmar Co., Sun Microsystems Inc. and Google Inc.

As examples of Japanese direct investment in Tuscany, Yanmar, a Japanese equipment maker, has established its first research and development center in Europe there, Otsuka Medical Devices Co. has bought a Pisa-based medical device maker and Toray Industries Inc. has bought a chemical company based in Lucca.

The last speaker was Ugo Besso of consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. He explained regulations and taxes on foreign direct investments in Italy.

In a Q&A session, a Japanese businessman asked about potential setbacks of planned tax cuts in Italy. Della Vedova said that Italy must follow the various rules imposed on EU members such as those covering national debts, but he is optimistic about Italy's economic growth and feels such debts will be reduced.

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