125 Years – Celebrated in Italy

IACC celebrates their 125th anniversary in Rome 

In honor of their 125^th years of activity, a delegation of members from the Italy America Chamber of Commerce, headed by the Chamber’s current president, Claudio Bozzo arrived in Rome for a very busy week of governmental and cultural meetings.

The event opened with a welcome dinner which they hosted at Rome’s Il Roseto Restaurant. Also in attendance was ILICA’s President Vincenzo Marra, as well as ILICA’s in-house artist Alessandro Marrone, who was commissioned by the Chamber to create unique sculpture-awards depicting the rebirth of the New York skyline from within an apple, symbol of the city. These awards are to be presented to several deserving recipients during their Italian visit, as well as at their upcoming 125^th celebration Gala in New York this November 2012.

A private meeting with Italy’s President of the Chamber of Deputies, Gianfranco Fini, took place the next morning at the historic Palazzo Montecitorio. President Fini discussed the strong ties between Italy and the United States, but confirmed the need for greater cooperation in this time of global recession. He praised the members of the Chamber of Commerce for the fine work they are doing in promoting the best of “Made in Italy”.

The Chamber delegation is greeted by Lamberto Dini, Senator of the Italian Republic, at Palazzo Madama. Senator Dini, a previous Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and Treasury Minister is known not only as a politician, but also as an astute economist. An alumnus of the University of Michigan, he is a fluent English-speaker who has a keen understanding of American politics. He spoke about emerging nations like China, whose leaders have so far been unwilling to compromise on many economic and political issues that are crucial to the economies of both the USA and Europe. Dini reminds us that in the past, wars have always been the tragic result of the movement of economic wealth from one area of the world to another. It is time to find solutions.

Meeting at ANSA‘s (Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata, the Italian Associated Press) Rome headquarters located in the prestigious 17^th century Palazzo della Dataria. ANSA’s CEO Giuseppe Cerbone, described the long history of his news agency, originally founded by Cavour and then went on to tell us that today it is the 2^nd largest news agency in Europe. Open 24 hours a day 365 days a year, ANSA speaks many languages including Portuguese and Arabic.  Cerbone, a graduate of Harvard’s Business School, told us that his mission is to take from the boot all that is interesting and unusual and share it with the rest of the world. He spoke about the cooperation that ANSA is establishing with the Italy America Chamber of Commerce to share information that will help to better promote “Made in Italy” ingenuity and innovation especially in the field of Italian technology, which has been vastly overlooked.