(by Claudio Salvalaggio)
Three days in the Russian
capital yielded numerous opportunities for the delegation led by
Milan mayor Giuliano Pisapia and the Italian embassy to
strengthen relations between the two cities and to promote Expo
2015.
A three-year, wide-ranging cooperation agreement between
Milan's Bicocca University and Russia's International Tourism
Academy, an agreement between the hospitality management
institute Carlo Porta and Moscow's State Institute for the
Tourism Industry as well as a series of meeting between dozens
of Russian and Milan businesses to result in partnerships and
investments were the most concrete results.
Over 200,000 Russians are expected to attend Milan Expo
2015, Pisapia told the Italian media on Tuesday.
Russia will have a prominent role not only as a large
agricultural nation - the theme of the Expo is 'Feeding the
Planet, Energy for Life' - but also on account of its
50-million-euro pavilion, one of the 10 largest.
It is expected to be inaugurated in March.
Pisapia said that he was not worried about a few problems
that the Expo had, nor about ongoing corruption investigations,
noting that ''if the Mafia has tried to infiltrate it'', then
''it has been defeated''.
The Milan mayor expressed satisfaction with the visit to
Moscow and the three-year cooperation agreement signed on
Tuesday with Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin.
The agreement covers several different sectors including
trade, promotional activities, protection of monuments and
museums, tourism, social services, sport, urban development,
education and advanced training.
Pisapia noted that ''there are many opportunities to
cooperate at the institutional and entrepreneurial levels. The
Milan town council can offer its wealth of experience in
sustainable mobility, car-sharing and recycling, which we are
ranked top in Europe for''.
He added that there are a great deal of opportunities
''also for private enterprises, in a capital with an enviable
budget to invest in an extension of the underground, new
stadiums, shopping centers and districts.''
This is why the delegation included numerous Italian
companies - such as Mapei, Salini Impregilo, Sistema Moda Italia
and Giugiaro Architettura - that spoke to some 100 Russian
companies thanks to the Italian-Russian chamber of commerce and
the Russian business owners association.
The Milan mayor also got Moscow involved in the over 30
cities that have joined the Urban Food Policy Pact, a global
accord for the right to safe food that will be signed at the end
of the Expo.
The ''diplomacy of the city'', he said, ''does not replace
national or European diplomacy but helps to maintain dialogue
with Russia during a tense period''.
Pisapia also brought to Moscow a taste of Milan, including
an info point in the TSUM department store, young Accademia
della Scala performers (who got onto the Bolshoi stage with
their Russia counterparts), the photographic exhibition 'Milan:
City of the Expo 2015', a friendly hockey match between Moscow's
Dynamo team and Milan's Rossoblu, as well as a fashion show with
60 creations by young Italian and Russian designers from Milan's
five fashion design schools: AFOL, IED, Secolo and NABA, of the
Istituto Marconi and the Domus Academy.
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