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Rome, January 2009
Dear friends and colleagues,
 The year 2008 reported in this document was a year with a mixed
record: effective introduction of some of the changes proposed by HQ
and/or originating in audits and evaluation, both completed early in
2008, but still facing changes in methods of work programming and
longer-term planning. This year, in fact, marks the end of the
operational period authorized under the ongoing Project Document. ITPO Italy is, therefore, in the process of renewing itself through
the processing of a new Prodoc. As in past years, however, our
delivery of programmed, traditional outputs has held-up well. We
participated in a large number of events, conducted a number of
activities in the new fields of training and capacity-building, as
well as in our sectoral and geographical programs. In light of
recent experience and in order to further improve the already high
level of services we provide SMEs in developing countries and in
Italy, we have decided to specialize further, concentrating on four
sectors where Italian industry sets the standards and has
established world-level best practice, namely: Food and
Agro-Industry, Textiles and Clothing, Leather and Footwear, and
Energy, Water, and Environment.
An important event towards the end of the year was the visit to Rome
of Mr. K. Yumkella, UNIDO Director General who honoured us by having
lunch in our Office accompanied by Messrs. Luetkenhorst and
De Groot and thus meeting
all the ITPO Italy staff. During his visit, Mr. Yumkella was
interviewed on the popular morning talk show UNO MATTINA, on RAI 1
of Italian State Television together with Minister E. Belloni,
Director General of Italian Development Cooperation. He was received
by the President of the Council of Ministers, Premier Silvio
Berlusconi with whom he had a friendly but serious discussion about
UNIDO and the needs of developing countries for assistance with
investment and industrialization. The Premier also praised UNIDO for
having shown flexibility/adaptability in meeting the changing needs
of developing country enterprises. Mr. Yumkella also met the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hon. F. Frattini and other high level
officials of the Ministry.
We continued to work on our core responsibilities, especially
investment promotion, and continued to benefit from the added-value
of working within the ITPO-IPU network. We continued to work in high
gear on the Local IP project on Energy and Environment co-financed
by the Italian Ministry of Environment. We also made good use of the
delegates’ program, having successfully hosted delegates of
Ethiopia, Sénégal, Tanzania, and India who were given good support
in their promotion efforts and with whom ITPO Italy is still
fruitfully collaborating
Under the leadership of our reinvigorated Coordination Unit, we
multiplied our collaboration with HQ programs and projects,
particularly on the Consolidated Project for SME Development in
India and HQ Export Consortia Pilot Project. ITPO Italy supported a
number of visits by Indian participants, institutions (The Ministry
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises) both for promotion and
capacity-building purposes, as well as organising meetings with
Italian counterparts to the Indian Clusters in leather and footwear,
and auto parts.
The collaboration with the UNIDO HQ Unit on Districts, Clusters, and
Consortia, took place around the creation of three export consortia
in Senegal and a joint training program for the consortia presidents
and the enterprises making them up. The
study tour organised for them, later
extended to include Moroccan consortia officials and consultants,
presented an opportunity for participants to engage in South-South
cooperation as Senegalese consortia presidents were able not only to
study state of the art in Italy but also discuss with Moroccan
consortia which have only a few years’ head start on the Senegalese
ones.
As for our prospects, the presentation of our new Project Document
in Vienna marks a new departure which will consecrate a deeper
synergy with HQ, now that the mandate of the ITPOs intersects more
substantially with that of UNIDO Vienna.
Sincerely
Diana Battaggia
Head- UNIDO ITPO Italy |
