Good afternoon everyone.
Thank you for being here and thanks to those who have worked so hard to organise this event, starting with Minister Tajani and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Thank you to everyone who has spoken and my heartfelt thanks also go to Prime Minister Shmyhal and the Ministers in the large delegation accompanying him at this event; I am very happy to welcome them, both personally and on behalf of the Government and the entire Italian population who, since that awful day on 24 February last year, have never stopped providing Ukraine with comprehensive support.
It could not have been any other way. Italy could have made no other choice but to stand with the Ukrainian people in this battle for their freedom, for their integrity, for their sovereignty, not only because this was the right thing to do, but also because, and I wish to take this opportunity to stress this once again, what is happening today in Ukraine concerns us all. It concerns us all because of the respect we should all have for a population’s freedom and sovereignty, and it concerns us all because a world in which the force of law is replaced by the law of the strongest is a world that is not in anyone’s interest and is not in our interest.
The Ukrainian people are also fighting for us. The Ukrainian people fighting does not bring the conflict closer, it averts a possible conflict closer to us. So the support we are providing is a must, it is necessary, and we have provided that support in all areas needed; this is the context for the conference on reconstruction we have organised here today.
I personally made this commitment on behalf of Italy when I visited Kyiv in February, one of the many commitments Italy has delivered on, demonstrating its reliability, its ability to keep its word and its ability to be coherent and credible in the choices it makes.
The aim of this event is above all to look forward and talk about reconstruction, placing the extraordinary know-how of our businesses and producers at the heart of that reconstruction. So, today we are proud to welcome here, and I really wish to thank them, the top managers of 600 of Italy’s best companies, the top managers of 150 of Ukraine’s best companies, and of course also the Ministers involved and the representatives from major international financial institutions. 
We are here to talk about the present, to talk about the future, to talk about Ukraine’s future, which is a future of peace, freedom and well-being. This is the message that the international community wants to firmly reiterate today from Rome: Ukraine’s future is a future of peace and freedom; there are no other possible solutions, there are no other options.
We want to contribute to this objective not only by helping Ukraine to defend itself and not only by supporting all political options, including envisaging a negotiated solution to the conflict, as long as this is based on the premise that this nation’s integrity is not in question and as long as there is an awareness that an invasion must never be exchanged with the word peace.
We are working for an end to the conflict, and we are already moving in this direction starting today with our initiative, with the many initiatives we are pursuing.
It is our task to help Ukraine write this new chapter in its history and Italy is well placed to absolutely play a leading role in this process, not only considering the determination and credibility with which we have made our choices, and the fact that we have never wavered, but also because, for example, Italy will hold the rotating presidency of the G7 next year, in 2024; it has played a leading role in all the major choices that have been made over these years; and, I would like to add, it is also a candidate to host the Ukraine Recovery Conference in 2025, a much bigger event than this one, as a sign of our willingness to move forward on this. 
Our task is to immediately work to restore what has been destroyed in Ukraine, starting with strategic infrastructure and energy infrastructure. Look at the profound meaning of Russia’s choice to strike all the strategic infrastructure needed to sustain the civilian population. They attempted to make a population surrender with cold, with darkness, with hunger.
I think Italy should be proud of the fact that one of the main things we focused on in the last aid package for Ukraine was electricity generators to give electricity, warmth, water and food back to the Ukrainian people, who in any case had not given in.
I think Italians should be proud of this, but I also think that, from today, we must work to rebuild the infrastructure that has been hit, or that continues to be hit, in liberated areas: roads, bridges, schools, hospitals. Everything is needed.
This process requires not only the support of the nations backing Kyiv and of multilateral and financial institutions. I would like to take this opportunity to announce, and I know that the Ukrainians care a great deal about this, that SACE [Italian Export Credit Agency] is ready to relaunch its activities in Ukraine, of course within a framework of international financial support that is needed precisely for the completion of strategic projects, including services, infrastructure and energy. SACE is ready to resume the operations that were suspended in 2022 due to the conflict, and to support new operations.   
This support is fundamental. The support provided by nations is fundamental, the support provided by multilateral organisations is fundamental and the support provided by financial organisations is fundamental.
However, considering the amount of reconstruction work needed, it is clear that a responsible commitment by private entities is also fundamental because, to support Ukraine’s economic recovery, it will be crucial to be able to count on companies, with their entrepreneurial spirit and the level of expertise that each has in their own key sectors. In other words, our ambitious objectives require a significant injection of private capital and investment. 
Ukraine is a proud nation, certainly, but it is also a dynamic nation that is rich in resources and has plenty of talent. It is a nation that offers great investment opportunities to those with a shrewd eye. It is no coincidence that Italy is Ukraine’s third largest trading partner, and it is no coincidence that we have signed a technological and industrial cooperation agreement with Kyiv in several strategic sectors: I am thinking of logistics, high technology and agricultural machinery, through to start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises and its production fabric that, in certain respects, is very similar to Italy’s.

Our ‘Sistema Italia’ is already present in Ukraine. Together with financial and international institutions and our agencies that support internationalisation, we are working to strengthen this ‘Italian system’ in Ukraine, including the matter of the necessary insurance for investors against the risks deriving from the conflict. We intend to continue pursuing this commitment, also via the international donors’ platform in which our nation has participated since the beginning.

So, what I want to say to the very authoritative audience sitting here in front of me today, what I want to say to Italian entrepreneurs, is: do not be afraid, do not be afraid to invest, do not be afraid to build, to reconstruct, do not be afraid to look beyond the difficult months we are going through. Do not be afraid to bet on Ukraine’s victory and to bet on this country’s European integration, because we will strongly support Ukrainians’ right to be an integral part of the European family. I and we consider this aspiration, held by those who are today defending also our freedom with their lives, to be absolutely sacrosanct. 
I also believe this is an opportunity for all of us, for Europe, to grow, to open up, to expand its borders. The steps forward that the government has made in this regard with its reforms are very important, as mentioned by President Zelensky, whom I wish to thank and greet. I believe due attention must also be paid to this because, despite being in the middle of a conflict, the government continues to work to move closer and closer to European standards, demonstrating its desire to be fully European.
I believe that these efforts, at such a difficult time, in such a difficult situation, can only be rewarded, by speeding up the initiatives necessary to foster this integration as much as possible. This is also a demonstration of the extraordinary strength of the Ukrainian people, who have shown to the world, and continue to show every day, what it means to love your freedom, to love your homeland and who, despite their suffering, have in the end been able to also turn the crisis into an opportunity, also in a way to question themselves, to demand more from themselves and to take steps forward. An opportunity to strengthen their ranks, to react, to improve, to modernise, because, yes, crises always present opportunities too. They drive choices, they drive action; they inevitably also bring opportunities with them. We Italians, who built the economic miracle of the 1960s on the rubble of the Second World War, know this better than anyone. So I would like it to be us Italians again today, with that know-how, with that experience, to build also the next economic miracle in Ukraine. This challenge is within our reach because, after all, no one knows how to turn crises into opportunities like Italians have shown they can. 
I am certain these efforts may also bring Kyiv’s economic performance in line with its neighbours much faster than we can imagine today. In my view, investing in Ukraine’s reconstruction today is not risky. In my view, investing in Ukraine’s reconstruction today is an extremely prudent and forward-looking investment. It is an investment in peace, it is an investment in well-being. It is an investment in the economic growth of Ukraine, Italy and Europe. I trust that those who, like us, have always been pioneers of opportunities that others don’t see, will not miss this one.

I will conclude by saying, dear Prime Minister, that we are ready to create a new page of our common history together. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote that if you want to build a ship, then you shouldn’t drum up people to cut wood, divide the work and give orders, but rather teach them to yearn for the sea. To rebuild a war-torn nation, money, engineers, architects and workers (although they will be needed) are not enough; a longing for freedom is needed, that longing for their future that the Ukrainian people have demonstrated so well. Reconstruction is therefore possible and inevitable. 
War often undermines confidence in the future, it tends to blind people. It has not been so in this case. In this case, the people have not allowed themselves to be blinded. In this case, the people looked their enemy right in the eye and chose to fight, because they wanted to look beyond that enemy, they wanted to look to what would come after, to what was ahead.
Today, we, Italy, the international community, are also all looking in the same direction, and we are all looking beyond this conflict, beyond that enemy, beyond that invasion, beyond that injustice. The best way to look beyond is to imagine a rebuilt Ukraine, because every school, every home, every hospital, every bell tower that we rebuild together in Ukraine will form part of the foundations for the whole of Europe.

Thank you all for what you will be able to do.

[Courtesy translation]