Calenda calls for fashion development

(ANSA) - Rome, May 24 - Italian Industry Minister Carlo Calenda spoke to students at Rome's LUISS University on Tuesday, praising the country's fashion industry but adding that the sector still requires development.
    "(The industry) suffers from a lack of coordination and a system economy," Calenda said. "The concept of quality must go beyond that of the product, adding sustainability, traceability, and the cultural context in which the product is produced, which is our manufacturing capability," he said.
    The talk was part of a roundtable discussion on the fashion industry in the first of a series of talks titled "Appointments with Ingenuity", sponsored by LUISS in cooperation with the non-profit Comitato Leonardo Italian Quality Committee. Calenda said owner nationality of a "Made in Italy" brand is less important than where the product is produced.
    "We've seen many brands bought by foreign companies. There's nothing more mistaken than saying that 'Made in Italy' is being sold out. An Italian company is one that works, produces, and hires in Italy. Ownership is irrelevant. The stories of the brands that have been bought demonstrate they've increased jobs, margins, productivity. It's capital that they want to invest in goods produced in Italy. Provincialism in this sector never pays," he said. "We owe a lot to fashion and textiles. This industry was the first to be hit by globalization. Politicians are wrong to shame fashion as something that's only for the rich; there are many small and medium-size businesses in the supply chain," Calenda said.
    Comitato Leonardo President Luisa Todini said Italy is the third-largest textile and clothing exporter worldwide, with exports worth 30 billion euros.
    "It's a 53-billion-euro sector with 47,000 companies and 400,000 employees. But the challenges of the future are still defending the brand and the fight against counterfeiting," Todini said.
    "The new digital frontier of e-commerce already generates three billion euros for Italian fashion companies. It's a wave that many companies have managed to ride, but there's still a gap to bridge, especially with small- and medium-size businesses. That's why the government's measures through the national Industry 4.0 plan are very welcome," Todini said.