The Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) has signed a partnership agreement with the General Confederation of Italian Industry (Confindustria) at the country pavilion in Expo 2020.

 

The partnership was officiated prior to the ‘Manufacturing & Innovation’ conference, hosted in collaboration with Italy and the UAE as part of the six-day GMIS Week.

 

Co-chaired by the UAE Ministry of Industry Advanced Technology and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the GMIS week featured over 250 global speakers, including heads of state, prime ministers, ministers and CEOs of some of the world’s largest organisations to foster cooperation and global prosperity through cutting-edge technologies.

 

The partnership with Italy’s Confindustria is aimed at boosting economic and industrial growth, manufacturing capabilities and innovations driven by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and will explore the possibility of hosting a future GMIS edition in Italy.

 

The partnership agreeement was inked in the presence of Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luigi Di Maio. 

 

GMIS later hosted a delegation from Italy as part of a country-focused conference, developed jointly with the UAE, to share key experiences, knowledge and insights on the challenges facing the manufacturing industry to trigger discussions on ways to foster greater manufacturing capabilities along Industry 4.0 standards.

 

Commenting on the deal, Badr Al-Olama, Head of the Organising Committee of the GMIS, said: "Fostering cross-border cooperation will ground long-term prosperity in local markets and influence global industries as they interact in collaborative ventures across their respective economies, effectively contributing stronger bi-lateral relations. Today the conference showcased great potential to advance high growth industries in the manufacturing sector and ensure it fosters further financial and social stability."

 

Featuring a welcome address by Nicola Lener, Italian Ambassador to UAE, the conference also welcomed opening remarks by Barbara Beltrame Giacomello, Vice President of Internationalisation at Confindustria, offering key insights on the rich bi-lateral relations between the two nations, with focus on export and imports spikes in manufactured biomedical supplies, SMART factories and open innovation systems, research and development tools, along with future prospects at the turn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

 

A moderated panel session spearheaded discussions on the future of the manufacturing industry. Joining the discussion were Alessandroa Spada, VP at VRV Group and President of Assolombarda; Daniela Vinci, CEO at Masmec; Alberto Tripi, President at AlmavivA; and Ismail Abdulla, CEO at Strata Manufacturing. Panellists debated around leading technological, industrial and policy trends that are shaping the post-pandemic world and highlighted the need for industries to adapt the manufacturing sector considering all the opportunities linked to robotics and mechatronics, to the ICT technologies and Artificial Intelligence, and to research and development advances to make the production chain sustainable.

 

Barbara Beltrame Giacomello, Vice President for the Internationalisation at Confindustria said: "The Fourth Industrial Revolution has enacted a cultural shift whereby societies and industries are experiencing rapid changes to their daily activities. Investment solutions can tackle the main factors and harmonise workplace flow, experience, safety, production and more."

 

"National economic conditions must facilitate further investments across the scopes of digital literacy and Industry 4.0 technological production, and for effective change, R&D activities are crucial to fuel this change. We are confident that our collaboration with GMIS will facilitate discussions that will drive us in that direction," he added.