ITALY 2022
INTERVIEW
ANTONIO VENTRESCA, DIRECTOR, ITALIAN TRADE AGENCY
RESILIENCE
KEPT US ON TRACK We’re here to help Italian and Serbian companies work together and to continue reiterating the business values that they’ve been creating over past decades. Resilience and persistence have helped both of our economies to stay on track and have reinforced our relationship EuroFlora, Oro Arezzo, to name just a few. We are very happy to see that the economic and business environment has returned to what it was prior to the pandemic. We currently have over a dozen Serbian business representatives residing in Italy, while in the coming months we plan to further strengthen this important channel of communication. One of our most important business events – the Novi Sad Agriculture Fair – will host 24 Italian companies that will represent our excellence in the agriculture sector.
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he pandemic was felt deeply worldwide and our two countries experienced nothing different - says Antonio Ventresca, Director of the Italian Trade Agency (ITA). Following a period of understandable stagnation in 2020, last year showed that economic collaboration between Italy and Serbia is as strong as ever. Italian exports to Serbia in 2021 grew by 20% compared to 2020 and quickly reached pre-pandemic levels, at a value of 2.3 billion euros. The same can be observed when we analyse Serbian exports to Italy, where the annual growth rate stands at almost 30% and looks to be reaching 1.8 billion by the end of this year, explains our interlocutor. “Re-
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silience and persistence have always characterised the entrepreneurs of both countries and the crisis seemed to have reinforced the most stable economic relationships.” When could we expect a return to the pre-pandemic period in terms of business travel and the organising of full-scale fairs and other events that help to fuel economic exchange? I believe this time has already come. Our Agency organised business trips for a number of fairs, trade shows and business meetings in the first quarter of 2022: the Verona Agriculture Fair, BEER&FOOD ATTRACTION, Vinitaly, MacFrut, IPACK IMA, MIDO,
How has the world of trade and investments changed during the two years of the pandemic and how has that impacted on the overall goals of your organisation? Something has obviously changed, but it wasn’t necessarily negative. The last two years allowed us to gain new experiences, as we used different online and offline tools to enable and maintain business communications. While travelling was banned or hampered, the majority of our partners, in both Italy and Serbia, adapted quickly to online events and companies have been very responsive to this “new normal”. Our Agency is already deeply oriented towards online services, and we haven’t skipped a beat. I believe that good oldfashioned face-to-face meetings and a physical presence at significant business events will still remain unparalleled in terms of experience. However, I must say that Serbian companies are showing a great deal of flexibility and willingness to embrace the new trends,
