COMUNICATO STAMPA

PRESIDENT CIAMPI VISITS FIERA DI MILANO: "TODAY YOU'VE BOOSTED MY CONFIDENCE"

"Today you've boosted my confidence, thanks to your work on a grandiose project that will have an extraordinary impact on , , and all of ". With these words, President of the Italian Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi thanked Luigi Roth, president of Fondazione Fiera Milano, the attending authorities and the Fiera di Milano management.

"Development materializes when you perceive the need to create, act, and produce " added President Ciampi, referring to the redevelopment of the Milan exhibition complex, which is becoming an ever greater powerhouse for the development of Lombardy and the entire country.

The meeting, which took place in the recently-restored historical Palazzina degli Orafi in Milan, that houses the new Fondazione offices, was attended by – in addition to the President of the Republic and his spouse Mrs. Franca Ciampi – leading authorities from Milan and representatives from local governments. Among these, the President of the Lombardy Regional Government Roberto Formigoni and the President of the Lombardy Regional Council Attilio Fontana, the President of the Milan Provincial Government Ombretta Colli, Gabriele Albertini, as well as the Mayors of Pero and Rho, Augustangela Fioroni and Paola Pessina.

Roth provided the head of state with an outline of the redevelopment work on the exhibition complex that is in progress, involving two projects: the New Fiera Milano Complex and the redevelopment of the Milan City Complex. Direct video links with Rho-Pero took the more than 100 guests to the new Fiera construction site, where Claudio Artusi, managing director of Sviluppo Sistema Fiera, and Massimiliano Fuksas, the architect who signed the project for the new complex, illustrated the work progress. Last, a video preview showed the redevelopment project for the area of the city that is now occupied by the Fiera City Complex. This was an opportunity to highlight the cohesive and consistent approach adopted by Fondazione to make Fiera Milano one of the largest trade fair systems in the world.

Seven months after the first stone was laid – said Roth – this visit by the President of the Republic confirms that we are going in the right direction. The unconditional support that we have always received from the local bodies – fully respecting the time schedule – during the various phases of the project, has been COMUNICATO STAMPA

accompanied by this higher level of consensus, making the redevelopment of the new Milan exhibition system one of today’s large-scale infrastructure projects.

Per ulteriori informazioni: Fondazione Fiera Milano - Comunicazione e Relazioni Esterne Roberto De Giorgis 335.7243146 [email protected] www.fondazionefieramilano.it