Excellencies, distinguished Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers, high representatives, stakeholders, colleagues,
Welcome to the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations and thank you for having joined this afternoon at this high-level roundtable on Strengthening Small and Middle Enterprises for a climate resilient tomorrow.
Allow me to thank the Generali Insurance Group and UNDP, for having accepted to partner with the Permanent Mission of Italy to convene this meeting, jointly at the margins of the UN General High-Level Week and also in the context of the ongoing New York Climate Week.
Italy is very proud to highlight the role and impact of Sustainability Champions, both from the private and public sector, and to foster partnerships for advancing the SDGs in all regions. And this is the case, for instance, of the ongoing and growing partnership between General Group and UNDP through its Insurance and Risk Finance Facility, that we have been accompanying over the years and on which we will hear more today, together with other impactful initiatives.
As you know, just a few days ago, Member States adopted an ambitious Pact of the Future, where the acceleration of the SDGs was once again emphasized.
SDG acceleration can only be achieved with “all hands-on deck”: public and private leadership and financing are key, blending and scaling up what works for the people, the planet and for inclusive prosperity and sustainable development.
Small and middle enterprises play a crucial role in this endeavor, across all the regions of the world, since they are the backbone of any economy and society: from a small island state to bigger countries, from the Pacific to the Atlantic, from Europe to Africa and Asia.
Our own story of economic development, in Italy, was marked by the sustainable growth of our own small and medium enterprises, and it is a model that we have been consistently supporting also in our development cooperation action.
Today’s challenges, among multi-dimensional shocks, including climate-change; the interconnectivity and key demographic as well as value chain related factors, have diversified the environment for SMEs, that are called to adapt quicker to new challenges and opportunities.
We are indeed proud to continue investing and promoting actions to support SMEs, especially in Africa, and beyond, also through our Development Cooperation System, as we will hear later today.
I am delighted about our conversation today and, to begin with, I am very pleased to introduce the first part of this roundtable.
