Delegations including both political and business leaders from the four partner regions attended the World Manufacturing Forum Annual Meeting 2019 held at Villa Erba in Cernobbio, Lombardy, from 25th to 27th of September.
Regional visions and practices responding to global manufacturing challeges
Delegations including both political and business leaders from the four partner regions attended the World Manufacturing Forum Annual Meeting 2019 held at Villa Erba in Cernobbio, Lombardy, from 25th to 27th of September. The joint participation in the Forum was one of the cornerstones of Lombardy’s presidency of the Four Motors for Europe and developed around the common will to foster deeper cooperation between the public and the private sectors in order to face the challenges of the industry of the future.
Auvergne Rhône Alpes, Baden-Württemberg, Catalunya, Lombardia are regions with a strong vocation for manufacturing and believe in the importance of the manufacturing industry as a sector capable of generating growth and jobs.
The World Manufacturing Forum provided an outstanding frame to bring together institutions and regional associations and business federations of the four partner regions. The views of regional governments and business federations were presented in the Four Motors for Europe side event “Regional visions and practices responding to global manufacturing challenges” on 25th September at Villa Erba. Industry of the future is at the heart of the policies and investments of the four regions; digitalisation in the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and the need to prepare skilled people are a special concern in all the four territories where SMEs represent a large sector contributing dramatically to the overall economic dynamism.
State Minister Theresa Schopper for Baden-Württemberg, Vice President Fabrizio Sala for the Lombardy Region, the Secretary for Foreign Affairs and European Union Mireia Borrell for Catalunya and regional Councillor Sophie Cruz for Auvergne Rhône Alpes presented relevant strategies and projects that have been developed by the regional governments, as part of the whole ecosystems of innovation, with regard to following sectorial topics that represent a shared priority: automotive, artificial intelligence, digital transformation, education, training as well as workers' skill upgrading.
A moderated discussion among the President of Confindustria Lombardia (Marco Bomometti), the President of LVI - Landesverband der Baden-Württembergischen Industrie (Wolfgang Wolf), the Representative of the Executive Committee of MEDEF Auvergne Rhône Alpes (Pierre-Olivier Boyer) and PIMEC-Micro, petita i mitjana empresa de Catalunya (Daniel Furlan) gave voice to the views and proposals from business. Together, the Four Motors for Europe can be the driver of big European initiatives allowing manufacturing to keep competitiveness in the European area. Together, the Four Motors for Europe can encourage the creation of new transnational value chains in Europe and together they will strive to join capabilities and resources to fully exploit the potential of existing and emerging value chains in manufacturing.
The Four Motors for Europe have engaged in exploring the development of interregional collaboration with the EU Funding Period 2021-2027 and the support of synergic projects to help SMEs to become part of innovation ecosystems with broad networking opportunities.
Key political messages shared by the four regions are enshrined in the joint document (PDF)which was adopted for the occasion of the event.
At the official opening of the World Manufacturing Forum Annual Meeting on 26th September, the Four Motors for Europe could present to an audience of almost 1.000 people from over 50 countries the sense and main outcomes of the joint participation in the event.
The Vice President of the Lombardy Region Fabrizio Sala pointed out that “our aim is to increase the role of European networks, in order to promote further cooperation between regions that can generate innovation, the key word in the industrial model of the future”. Already at the eve of the plenary meeting, during the Four Motors for Europe side event State Minister Theresa Schopper launched a clear message “We are convinced that interregional cooperation is the right way to strengthen the regions in Europe and their industries and thus to advance Europe as a whole. No matter how good our programmes, projects and institutes may be, in view of the concentrated competition from Asia and the USA, we are only likely to persist if we work together in Europe and promote a European way of digitalisation”.
“The Four Motors for Europe is an excellent platform for our regions due to the many similarities of our economies. The conclusions reached yesterday reflect not only the common needs of our territories, but also the political commitment to work together based on goals of prosperity, innovation and creativity” stated Secretary Mireia Borrell. Councillor Sophie Cruz also remembered that transformation of the industry is also a pillar in the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP, whose presidency is currently held by Italy and will be handed over to France in 2020) and officially announced the willingness of the Region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to become partner of the World Manufacturing Foundation.
