Speaking in the margins of the Federculture national assembly, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs Mario Giro stated that "Italy is an unwitting and sometimes reluctant cultural power. We have to change. Culture is an opportunity for economic growth in terms of exports, internationalisation and foreign investments. In order to tap that potential there has to be cooperation, coordination and subsidiarity among our country's various cultural actors". Minister Bray also underscored that "Only a shared vision of the promotion of Italian culture abroad will generate the system necessary".

"Culture", Giro added, "is a strategic competitive factor in many of our country's economic sectors. Cultural and creative production makes us uniquely recognizable and active abroad. Culture has demonstrated a good capacity to bounce back in a crisis. Italian cultural enterprise was up 3.3% last year despite the difficult financial picture; cultural exports were up 3.4% over the last year and 11.5% over the past 3 years".

Deserving of credit also is the network of "cultural ambassadors" that represent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: the Italian Cultural Institutes that bring Italian culture to public and private schools abroad, along with the Dante Alighieri Society, and that are located in 250 cities around the world, contributing to filling the demand for Italian culture. "The economic returns are clear", Giro continued "for every euro in resources invested in the Italian Cultural Institutes, 1.39 is generated, thanks to courses and sponsorships".

The Under-Secretary concluded by saying that "these results illustrate a great potential on which to build, aiming at rationalisation and ensuring the greater cooperation of all actors, not only public ones but also associations and the cultural and creative industries. There has to be a review of the cultural promotion network abroad with a view to making it more flexible and facilitating public-private partnerships".

Fonte: Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs