Italian Technology Seeks Israeli Partners
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No. 3 Decembre 1999 ITALIAN TECHNOLOGY Edited by SEEKS ISRAELI PARTNERS The Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv Italy is Israel's third largest trading partner. For Italian companies, ITALIAN TECHNOLOGY pg1 Israel is increasingly interesting not only as a market, but also SEEKS ISRAELI PARTNERS as a partner for industrial cooperation in hi-tech sectors. ITALY'S WAY TO GLOBALISATION: pg2 The "Italian Technology Week" in Tel Aviv (6-9 December) LOCAL NETWORKS OF SME'S confirmed this. WEALTHY NORTH-WESTERN REGIONS pg3 VISIT ISRAEL t the beginning of December, forty Italian cooperation also emerged in the chemical and A manufacturers came to Tel Aviv to promote biotechnology sectors, as well as in areas related REGIONAL PROFILES: PIEDMONT, pg3 their products and look to environment such as water A CHAMPION IN R&D for Israeli partners. The and garbage treatment. delegation was led by GOVERNMENT PRIVATISES ELECTRICAL GIANT pg4 Professor Fabrizio Onida, Some of the main Italian Chairman of the Italian banking institutions also "NOT ONLY PRIVATISATION": pg5 Institute for Foreign Trade attended the meeting, such CHAIRMAN CHICCO TESTA I.C.E., who met with Dan as Monte dei Paschi di Siena, HIGHLIGHTS ENEL'S STRATEGIES Gillermann, Chairman of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro the Federation of Israeli and Banca Commerciale ITALY IN ISRAEL pg6 Chambers of Commerce, Italiana, which indicates the and Amir Makov, growing involvement of ITALIAN PILOTS AT THE HATZOR BASE pg6 President of the Israel Italian financial institutions Export Institute. in the Israeli system. CULTURAL EVENTS IN ISRAEL pg7 The event was the first The Technology Week is EVENTS IN ITALY pg8 step in a joint programme bound to have a significant of initiatives and events follow-up next year. In May Embassy of Italy agreed upon by I.C.E., the Israel Export Institute, 2000 a Country Presentation of Israel will take 4, Weizman St. Tel Aviv the Manufacturers Association of Israel and the place in Milan. Italian-Israeli workshops in Tel: 03-6964223/4/5 Fax: 03-6918428 Israeli Federation of Chambers of Commerce. specific technological fields will be organised E-mail:[email protected] The programme was aimed at strengthening in Israel. <> http://www.italian-embassy-israel.org.il ties between Israeli and Italian business. As shown in the table beside, trade between Israel and Italy is flourishing. Italians and Israelis are ITALIAN EXPORTS TO ISRAEL BY MAIN TRADING COUNTRIES aiming now to explore opportunities for industrial MAIN COMMODITY GROUP BY EXPORTS TO ISRAEL cooperation in the hi-tech sector. (MILLION US DOLLARRS) (MILLION US DOLLARRS) ITALIAN EXPORTS 1998 MAIN TRADING COUNTRIES 1998 Italy's strength in the production of consumer EXPORTS goods is well known, but the general public is Machinery, electrical equipment & their sometimes surprised to hear that the bulk of parts 481 United States 5,211 Italian exports lies in machinery and electrical Base metals and articles thereof 195 Germany 2,417 equipment. These are produced mainly by small and medium-sized enterprises organised in Textiles and textile articles 187 Italy 1,827 "industrial districts" (see page 2). For these producers, Israel's skill in hi-tech is likely to Miscellaneous manufactured articles 157 United Kindom 1,585 be very attractive, facilitating competition in Products of chemical or allied industry 139 France 1,125 global markets. Italian manufactures of mechanical and engineering products, machine tools, robots Total Italian Export 1,827 and automation and farm machinery were the (by the Central Bureau of Statistics) (by the Central Bureau of Statistics) most numerous business representatives in the - total excluding diamonds - - total excluding diamonds - delegation. Promising opportunities for 1 mong the industrialized European THE LEADING 10 DISTRICTS BY TURNOVER A countries, Italy has three distinguishing District Region Product Turnover Companies Employees Export characteristics: a high number of companies, (bil. Lire) (no.) (no.) (bil. Lire) a strong preponderance of small and medium- Biella Piedmont Textile- 6,000 2,300 29,000 1,800 sized enterprises and a high per-capita value Clothing added, typical of a country without raw Prato Tuscany Textile- 5,150 11,850 48,000 2,575 materials and of an industrial system founded Clothing basically on transformation. Brianza Lombardy Furniture 5,000 9,100 30,000 900 The Italian economic growth model is based Como Lombardy Silk 4,300 1,800 17,300 1,800 on flexible strategy and the diffusion of a Sassuolo Emilia Ceramic 4,052 220 21,400 2,600 network of small, but highly profitable Romagna Tiles enterprises. The path of industrialization mapped out in recent years has enabled Italy Arzignano Veneto Hides 3,087 600 7,050 2,315 to achieve a goal which is enviable and unique Vicenza Veneto Jewellery 3,000 1,100 10,000 1,800 if compared with the production systems of Ascoli Marche Footwear 2,547 2,434 24,265 520 other European countries. Piceno The data leaves no room for doubt: of the Santa Croce Tuscany Hides 2,500 880 10,000 500 more than sixteen million enterprises in Carrara Tuscany Marble 2,300 1,200 9,000 1,800 Europe, 24% are located in Italy, 16.2% in (1 Euro is 1936 Lire) the United Kingdom, 15.2% in Spain and 14.1% in Germany. resources. Hence the possibility to avail ideas, forces, capital in which principal oneself of family ties and to continually companies and sub-suppliers develop economic In addition, 21.1% of Europe’s enterprises procure fresh local labor. One of the success transactions, collaboration and forms of with a workforce of less than 100 are to be factors of the industrial districts lies precisely vertical co-operation. Thus, a grid model in found in Italy. There are 68 enterprises every in this synergy of forces between territory, which affinities, collaboration and competition one thousand inhabitants. environment, community and family-run co-exist comes into being. enterprises. Moreover, the human scale of If we see the Italian economy as a temple, the structures fosters better labour relations Each area, in fact, specializes in products small and medium-sized enterprises are the as regards both quality and performance. The which are different and of differing complexity bricks in the building, while the industrial district model allows the employee a with different final use. Thus, for example, districts are its supporting columns. The most Prato in Tuscany is famous for textiles, recent report by the National Statistics Institute Sassuolo in Emilia Romagna for ceramic shows that industrial districts account for It is not widely known that tiles, Valtrompia in Lombardy for cutlery more than 80% of manufacturing systems in and Montegranaro in Marche for footwear. terms of both number and employment. the secret of Italy's economic success lies in the so-called As regards geographical distribution, the The latest report by Italy’s National Statistics north -east, with 32.7% of the districts identified Institute indicates that there are 784 districts "industrial districts": small has the greatest concentration of districts, (defined as local work systems and identified and medium-sized enterprises followed by the centre with 30.7%, the north- by the 1991 Census). Of these, 279 are defined west , where the density of industrial districts as manufacturing districts of which 199 are networking on a local basis. amounts to 29.6%, and the south with 7.5%. identified as fully-fledged "industrial districts". This is a modern reality which The textile industry’s most important districts Situated mainly in the north and in the center are concentrated in Piemonte, Veneto, Marche, of the country, the districts judiciously combine dates back to the tradition of Tuscany and Lombardy. The districts of the adaptability to demand fluctuations, a high the "Comuni" (Local mechanical engineering industry are propensity for technological innovation, concentrated mainly in northern Italy, in flexible production networks and a high Councils) in the Middle Ages. particular Emilia Romagna, Lombardy, degree of work-force mobility. Piedmont and Veneto. The north-east plays a fundamental role in furniture and in some An industrial district is basically a small area considerable degree of autonomy and room niche productions such as jewellery, ceramics, in which clusters of between one to three for self-management and more social mobility marble working and spectacles. In the food thousand enterprises operate, mostly with than in big companies. sector, Emilia Romagna, where film director less than twenty employees and which employ Federico Fellini was born, has more districts from ten to twenty thousand workers overall. These characteristics make the district a than the other regions. It should also be noted The districts have some characteristics in 'Laboratory', or rather, a series of laboratories that there is a proliferation of small and micro common. Firstly, a diffuse entrepreneurial of the Renaissance type, expressed by the agro-food firms throughout the spirit and the capacity to use social structures various functional areas which together form Mezzogiorno.<> which are highly suited to coordinating a network of operative poles. A source of 2 WEALTHY NORTH-WESTERN REGIONS VISIT ISRAEL TALY'S interest in strengthening I economic ties with Israel is also seen by the visit of two regional delegations from Italy's highly industrialized North-West. At the end of October, Alberto Zorzoli, Vice- President of Lombardy, came to Israel with a delegation of businessmen, followed by Enzo Ghigo, President of Piedmont, on 21- 23 November. The importance that both Italian and Israeli partners attached to the visits is shown by such official events as the meeting between Mr. Ghigo and Mr. Masalha, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the meeting between Mr. Zorzoli and Mr. Goldschmidt, President of the Financial Committee of the Knesset. Some figures highlight the economic weight of both regions.