Rome, February 11th 2015. The agreement was signed today between the Director of UNIDO ITPO Italy Mrs. Diana Battaggia and the Deputy General Manager of Banca Popolare of Sondrio Mr. Mario Erba at the UN Agency in Rome. The initiative is aimed to promote industrial collaboration between companies, including SMEs, from developing countries and Italian ones.

Their intention is to develop small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries and emerging economies and promote technological upgrading through technical assistance, training of human resources, consulting services and the transfer of sustainable technologies. Mrs. Diana Battaggia showed, in advance, to Mr. Mario Herb the new web platform 'Supporting your SMEs to discover Expo 2015 and Italian Excellences' realized for the Universal Exhibition.

Mrs. Diana Battaggia also mentioned about the possibility to organize study tours, B2B meetings, and seminars to give the opportunity for foreign SMEs to discover more about the Italian excellences. Mr. Mario Erba expressed his appreciation for the proposal and he showed his availability to realize this project.

The 'Joint Declaration’ between UNIDO ITPO Italy and Banca Popolare of Sondrio has laid the foundations for a partnership that will be beneficial to the industrial development of SMEs in developing countries and emerging economies.