ROMA (ITALPRESS) – “Thank you very much for what you do every day in silence but with great determination to help every one of our citizens even in the most distant places. You, consoles, are a bit the mayors of Italy in the world. You are those who are burdened with the problems of our compatriots.” Antonio Tajani said this, opening the Conference of Italian Consuls in the world. “Every consulate is a kind of municipality where every Italian can find a reference point to try to solve their problems – he added -. Together with ambassadors, you are an instrument because our companies do not feel isolated or abandoned. You too have this fundamental task to ensure that through your work they can increase our exports and internationalization of our companies.”.
“I cordially thank the consuls for what you have done all over the world to help our compatriots at the most complicated time of the crisis [in the Middle East, ndr] when they did not leave the flights. We managed to bring home 25,000 compatriots, we assisted them in an egregious manner: this is a flagship of the activity of our ministry,” he said.
“I want to thank the consul, along with the ambassador, for the work done by staying close to the families who did not know what their children had done [in the tragedy of Crans Montana, ndr]. It was a meritorious mission. The other countries did not do the same: the other diplomats arrived and left, while ours remained there 24 hours on 24 hours ready to give answers and to assist our compatriots”, he added.
“We are a superpower of culture. For this reason, cultural diplomacy has a central role as the engine for growth and internationalization of our production. We do not forget that we have almost 2 million Italian students in over 110 countries. They are a great heritage that we must protect and strengthen. The Italian language is a tool for growth (we think about design, fashion, gastronomy, science): in the last two years we have granted over 1300 scholarships to foreign students and Italians resident abroad and we want to do even more,” said Tajani.
– Photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
