President Carlo Capasa at Giornata della qualità 2015
Mr President of the Republic, Mr Vice-Minister for Economic Development, Authorities, Ladies, Gentlemen, dear colleague entrepreneurs, good day to you!
I wish to extend my warmest thanks to you, Mr President, for your invitation to celebrate, in this marvellous setting, Quality, one of the most important and widely recognized values of our country and what it produces.
Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana has for 57 years been the prime custodian of this value.
Our members include all the companies that have made Italian Style great in the eyes of the world, famous brands that have breathed life into the concept of Quality!
The fashion of the modern era came into being in the 14th century in Milan.
From then on, the function of a dress or an accessory has been a quest for beauty.
This quest has created a unique system, capable of starting out with a wad of cotton, an untanned skin, raw materials, and turn them into products, and products into dreams.
Our brands have been the engine driving the whole industry.
With their constant focus on research, novelty, experimentation, they defined that unique, solely Italian way of working, based on a capacity to bring together craftsmanship and technology, tradition and research, efficiency and creativity.
Driven by this unquenchable thirst for the new, all the companies along the chain have developed extreme flexibility and high speeds of execution.
We became the production centre for all the world’s luxury brands wanting to make products of quality.
The role of our brands continues to be fundamental though: if on one hand they drive the industry, on the other they allow the economy as a whole to retain that differential value that only great brands can guarantee. Otherwise we’d be a mere manufacturing base with low value added potential.
If the brands are so central to our country’s production structure, it’s our duty to keep them alive and favour the creation of new ones.
Pragmatically and imaginatively, we must create the conditions for young people, our future, to carry forward and if possible strengthen this enormous heritage that the world acknowledges as ours.
We must be their mentors and tutors.
Though treasuring what we have achieved and the immense heritage that Italian fashion represents, we must look ahead.
In the grave political and financial crisis of recent years, businesses have done more than the system has and in many cases our companies, jeopardized by the obtuseness of the banks, were only able to survive thanks to that appeal, that intangible value of the brands that made it possible to attract investment from all over the world.
So, unlike the rest of the country, we were able to grow.
A few figures say it all: in 2014 the Italian fashion industry posted sales of euro 61.3 billion and expects to see 64.5 billion in 2015.
This is an important result, the best in the last five years!
Exports rose from 46.8 billion in 2014 to the 50.3 billion forecast for 2015.
The foreign trade balance moved from 18 billion in 2014 to the 19.6 billion forecast for 2015.
It’s never been so high! We started out with 14 billion in 2011.
The dollar exchange rate is playing an important part in this growth and we hope that a level around parity can be maintained in the long term.
But beware! Competition on the global market is very strong and situations can change rapidly. To stay competitive we need major investments and real co-operation.
Other countries are not sitting around: our fashion industry is being eyed by many.
Our colleagues in other countries can count on strongly cohesive national systems and major participation in the projects they’re carrying forward on the part of government.
We too should be looking to go in that direction. With clearly defined and shared projects.
In this connection, I must point out that the Prime Minister and Vice-Minister Calenda are devoting a certain degree of attention to our industry, for the first time in my memory.
I thank them and hope we will be able work together successfully to make our system increasingly cohesive and competitive.
We have shown that we’ve built a miracle. Let’s use it to plan the future together.
I will close now by thanking you, Mr President, for your marvellous hospitality. On behalf of Italian fashion I extend to you our warmest greetings and best wishes for your seven-year term!
Thank you,
Carlo Capasa
Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome, 27 April 2015