report: Maximiliano Crocamo
Interview: FVG councilor for education and research, Alessia Rosolen
Italy’s bid to sharpen its edge in the global race for investment arrived in Trieste this week, where leaders from government, industry and finance gathered for the third edition of “Selecting Italy” — a two-day event aimed at turning regional strengths into international opportunity.
Hosted at the waterfront Generali Convention Center, the forum brings together regional administrations, business executives and foreign investors for panels, workshops and strategic matchmaking. Its mission: to position Italy — and especially its northeastern border region of Friuli Venezia Giulia — as a hub for innovation and a gateway between Europe and the Mediterranean.
Opening the event, regional councillor Alessia Rosolen framed Trieste as a “geopolitical hinge” and a natural staging point for new investment. “Our geography is a competitive asset,” she said, pointing to the region’s logistics networks, scientific institutions and rapidly growing innovation sectors. “This forum is where strategies meet concrete opportunities.”
The initiative blends high-level policy discussion with hands-on networking, functioning as both conference and marketplace. Participants are exploring topics ranging from sustainable industry and green logistics to frontier technologies like hydrogen, quantum communication and cybersecurity — areas where regional officials say Italy must accelerate to keep pace globally.
Friuli Venezia Giulia has invested more than €40 million in research and development over the past three years, Rosolen noted, highlighting public-private partnerships, European funding programs and new institutions — including a data science and artificial intelligence foundation backed by Generali — as signs of momentum.
Yet speakers emphasized that regional ambition must align with national action. The event closed its opening session with remarks from Vannia Gava, deputy minister for environment and energy security, and Adolfo Urso, minister for business and Made in Italy, who echoed the call for coordinated policies to attract capital, talent and innovation.
For Trieste — a port city long shaped by international trade and scientific research — the forum offered both a showcase and a signal: Italy’s regions are increasingly stepping onto the global stage. And for those gathered this week, the message was clear: collaboration, speed and strategic vision will determine who wins the next chapter of investment competition.
