On 18 November in Brussels, Amazon presented the “Made in Italy” programme, in the context of the Amazon Academy 2019 initiative, which has brought together entrepreneurs and politicians from various Italian regional and local realities.
Fabio Massimo Castaldo presented his point of view as Vice-President of the European Parliament, providing an introductory overview of the state-of-the-art of the Italian SME market and the challenges and opportunities that will arise in the future.
Mariangela Marseglia, Vice President Amazon Italy & Spain has opened the discussion with a keynote speech on the evolution of the Italian ecommerce market as well as the characteristics of the “Made in Italy” program and how to engage with sellers.
Carlo Ferro, President of the Italian Trade agency (ITA), has focused on the recently established partnership with Amazon, to empower Italian small and medium-sized enterprises through the “Made in Italy” program, and to promote Italian culture and entrepreneurship on a global scale.
Members of the European Parliament Tiziana Beghin and Alessandro Panza also contributed to the discussion.
The debate then moved on to the panel level, where Marco Zullo and Pierfrancesco Majorino, members of the European Parliament, Stefano Da Empoli, President of I-Com, Institute for Competitiveness, Daniele Cappato, head of sales services of Amazon and Simona Maria Bandiera, owner of Lovedoormat, exchanged their views.
During the panel, Stefano da Empoli presented the results of the I-Com paper on the impact of e-commerce on Italian exports, with particular attention to the Italian SME system. The results confirm that although Italian exports through online sales still represent only 2% of the total, there are margins for growth and expansion.
The event has also been an occasion to hear directly from small firms. Nine “Made in Italy” entrepreneurs took part in the event, presenting their products during the cocktail reception, in a specially-created Italian market featuring these entrepreneurs.
