Genoa Boat Show kicks off

(ANSA) - Genoa, September 30 - Italian Deputy Industry Minister Carlo Calenda on Wednesday inaugurated the 55th Genoa Boat Show. A total of 760 exhibitors are showing about 1000 boats and nautical products amidst the first optimistic climate in nearly a decade. The sector has suffered economic crisis for seven years, particularly in the domestic market.
    "The Genoa Boat Show is no longer sad, as it was last year, but has been relaunched as has the boating sector," said Calenda.
    "This is the fair of the recovery. It 'a show that strives for excellence and looks to the international market. It's a show made for businesses. There is a strong feeling that (we're) turning a new page," he added. The exhibition offers many side events for discovering Genoa's cultural treasures and ends October 5.
    "Boating is lending a big hand to the country. It is an area of great excellence in Italy".
    "The Government has launched a plan to support the Genoa Boat Show which is considered one of the great Made in Italy events in the world," Calenda said.
    "We must continue to support it, helping small and medium shipyards in particular, and go to the great international boat shows, where there are sales, but transfer costs are very high." "We have invested six million euros in the export plan, subdivided over a year and a half. Roughly half is oriented toward strengthening the fair, and the rest to cover other fairs in the world." Calenda underlined that the sector is no long penalized by "fake ethical reasoning". He added that measures are underway for "the simplification of all processes, not only regulatory checks but also boat sales authorizations so as not to create the feeling of harassment." Calenda also called for greater cohesion among boat businesses after a number of large yacht and boating goods brands pulled out of the boating division of the national industrialists' federation Confindustria, UCINA.
    UCINA Chairman Carla Demaria welcomed Calenda's call for "compactness" and said that the group had passed new rules in June to make it "as inclusive as possible with the goal of reducing quarrels.
    Demaria also acknowledged appreciation that the Genoa Boat Show was among 30 national events that the economy ministry sought to strengthen.