Good evening. Thank you, Dario and Pasquale for inviting me to join today’s event. Ambassador Zappia – thank you for your leadership in support of our long-standing alliance and partnership. I am always pleased to participate in initiatives to broaden the United States’ strong bilateral relationship with Italy.

The business matching platform launched today by CDP has the potential to increase bilateral trade and investment between our countries. It is one tool that U.S. and Italian companies can use to develop partnerships to increase prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic. As the world’s largest economy, the United States is already Italy’s third largest export market, and with the connections facilitated by this platform, the opportunities to sell to, and buy from, the United States will increase.