Culture – The shining success of Italian culture was highlighted in the foreign press last week, which reported on the record number of visitors to the Venice Biennial (El Pais, November 24 – Cerró la Bienal de Venecia, ahora llega el turno de los museos).
Tomaso Andreatta founded the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (ICham), and in his then capacity as ICham’s first chairman signed its affiliation agreement with EuroCham Vietnam. He works primarily in the areas of Italian investment in Southeast Asia, international trade and project finance. As EuroCham’s current deputy chairman, he oversees work on ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) integration, corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, and efforts to combat corruption in cooperation with the Vietnamese government.
The appeal of Italian luxury items – Real estate, cars and clothes. The classic luxury status symbols are often associated with Italy and its business, a fact that was underlined last week by several articles in the foreign press.
The economic success of Made in Italy – Two weeks ago, the Financial Times wrote about Italy’s success on the stock exchange and international luxury markets (October 24 – Look beyond the crisis to find Italy’s new success stories*). And those names were again mentioned last week in the foreign press.
The Italian biofuel devolution – A new green revolution is coming out of Crescentino in the province of Vercelli. The Financial Times wrote about the Mossi Ghisolifi biorefinery, the world’s first plant dedicated to second generation biofuels – i.e. processed from agricultural waste and not food (November 6 – Italy leads biofuels ‘revolution’ hopes*).
The most interesting articles in some of the major foreign papers, October 24 to 31:
Italian success stories
Financial Times – Look beyond the crisis to find Italy’s new success stories* The new listing on the Milan stock exchange reveals the success stories of the Made in Italy brand.
October again saw a good number of studies by Italian researchers picked up by the major international scientific journals, with 45 articles published involving the contribution of 314 scholars across 80 national research institutes. Publications in the field of oncology were once more well-represented (7 studies by 59 researchers at 13 research centers), and appeared in The Lancet Oncology and specialist journals of the Nature group, such as the British Journal of Cancer.
Training researchers with managerial skills for roles in industry could, according to Giorgio Margaritondo, provide a boost for scientific education in Italy, while at the same time helping to foster innovation within firms. The way forward – he suggests – is to overhaul PhDs and strengthen the links between university research and industry, along the lines of what has happened in Switzerland in recent years.
The most interesting articles in some of the major foreign papers, October 10 to 23:
“Europe needs us”
Washington Post – ‘The European Union needs Italy’
Interview with Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta
An expert in regional development and country and city positioning strategies, Giuseppe Marzano is Dean of the Graduate School of the Universidad de Las Americas in Quito, Ecuador. In May 2012, the Italian President Napolitano bestowed on him the honor of Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy.
Last week, the foreign press review turned its attention to the most exciting sectors of Italian industry. Fashion made all the major international papers, which praised the success of the Fashion Week in Milan.
The most interesting articles in some of the major foreign papers, September 27 to October 9:
Business in Italy
Financial Times – Investors digest Autogrill split with zest *
Expansion – La mariposa de WDFG se cuela en la Bolsa de Milán
Autogrill spin-off takes off in the Milan exchange
This summer, the work of Italian researchers and laboratories published in international scientific journals mostly centered on the fields of oncology, genetics and neuroscience. Monitoring of the scientific press (including Science, The Lancet and the various journals of the Nature group) revealed that 84 studies conducted by Italian laboratories were published between the beginning of July and the end of September.
According to Francesco Stellacci, Professor of Materials Engineering at EPFL in Lausanne and co-founder of the start-up company Molecular Stamping, a system of research funding geared towards small and medium-sized enterprises is the key to stimulating innovation in Italy. Stellacci, who after graduating from the Polytechnic University of Milan taught at MIT in Boston before coming to Switzerland in 2010, talked to the Aspen website team about his experience in transferring skills across from the research sphere to industry.
Italian style: luxuries and trends – The spot light of the foreign press was once again trained on made in italy. There were two articles dedicated to Ferrari.
Fashion Week – “A great city” that made great effort to revitalize Fashion Week. And the result, partly thanks to the inauguration at Teatro La Scala on September 18, was extremely positive.
The most interesting articles in some of the major foreign papers, September 7-9:
