[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 23 (Monday, June 16, 2008)]
[Pages 825-827]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Discussion on Italy-United States Business Exchanges in 
Rome, Italy

June 12, 2008

    Ambassador Ronald P. Spogli. Mr. President, good morning. Good 
morning to everyone. First of all, I'd like to welcome you to the 
American Academy, and thank you for having so graciously agreed to be 
with us here this morning. I'd like to also welcome all of our fellow 
roundtable participants.
    As you know, we have eight students, five of whom have been to the 
United States on our BEST program, three of whom will shortly depart. 
And then we do have a couple of gentlemen who are slightly older than 
our researchers and scientists who are here--not that old, certainly, 
but a bit older--Michele and Marco, who have been successful 
entrepreneurs, have overcome the difficulties that we've talked about 
for some time in the Italian system, and who have graciously created an 
NGO that works on helping young entrepreneurs overcome difficulties. I'd 
like to also recognize our sponsors and welcome them this morning, and 
I'll have occasion to come back to you in a second.

[At this point, Ambassador Spogli made brief remarks, concluding as 
follows.]

    Ambassador Spogli. Clearly, economic growth is the key question 
facing the country today, and so the Partnership for Growth was 
conceived as a way to make a contribution toward the economic growth of 
Italy. And we focused on three fundamental areas.
    The first was commercializing research. Italy does a tremendous 
amount of high-quality research in nanotechnology and biotechnology and 
in other fields, but unfortunately, a relatively small amount of that 
research ever becomes commercialized. And so we wanted to fundamentally 
address that question.
    Second issue is one of a scarcity of financing for risk-taking 
capital enterprises. Italy is a country of great savers, has a very high 
savings rate, yet, unfortunately, very little is channeled into venture 
capital and private equity. We wanted to address this particular 
question as well. So we've had over 200 events in the course of almost 3 
years focusing on ways that we could share information and enhance not 
only our bilateral economic relationship but, hopefully, address some of 
these fundamental questions.
    Which brings me to the third and most important element of the 
Partnership for Growth, and that is our BEST student exchange program. 
Many companies came to us and said, it's great that you're focusing on 
technology transfer; it's great that you're focusing on venture capital; 
but there's one very important element that we'd like you to make a 
contribution to, and that is helping to change and add to the 
entrepreneurial culture of our country. You need to send high-quality 
researchers and scientists and engineers to the United States, give them 
a full immersion opportunity in a place like Silicon Valley, have them 
come back, take some of those experiences and then begin to create here 
in Italy a wonderful, unique entrepreneurial ecosystem.

[[Page 826]]

    And so we did just that. We created the BEST program, Business 
Exchange and Student Training. And in that program, we send young, 
promising scientists and engineers to the United States. They study for 
6 months in Silicon Valley, 3 months at the University of Santa Clara in 
their entrepreneurship center, and then they do a 3-month apprenticeship 
in a high-tech startup company to see literally how you can go from the 
creation of an idea to the--to, hopefully, the formation of the next 
great business here in Italy. The researchers must come back to Italy 
and share their experiences here and hopefully develop their research 
ideas.
    The program started last year with a five-person contingent, all of 
whom are here today. This year it's 15--it's grown to 15, 3 of whom are 
here. And next year, we hope to grow the program to 25--and hopefully 
more into the future.
    One final comment, sir, before I turn it over to you, and that is, 
the program would not have been possible without our many sponsors and 
supporters who are in the audience this morning. One hundred percent of 
this program was financed here in Italy by the generosity and forward 
thinking of our sponsors. Who do we have? We had Italian businesses; we 
had American companies who have subsidiaries in Italy; we had a number 
of associations that are interested in economic growth and development; 
we've had cities; and we've had regions participate.
    So for example, the city of Milan was a very early supporter of our 
program, Mr. President, and we have the mayor of Milan, Mayor Moratti, 
who is here this morning representing her fine city. We've had 
tremendous support from the Italian postal system, and we have the Chief 
Executive Officer this morning, Massimo Sarmi, who is the head of that 
organization, certainly. And then we've had wonderful support from a 
number of American businesses, such as IBM, who is represented by Dr. 
Martucci this morning, who has been, again, a great supporter of our 
program. We're delighted they're here. They contribute over a million 
dollars to this program. We'd like them to contribute a lot more going 
forward so we can send more high-quality students.
    And, sir, I'd like to turn it over to you, and thank you again.
    President Bush. Mr. Ambassador, thank you. Now, first of all, I do 
want to thank the folks here at the American Academy for welcoming me 
and what generally is a rather large entourage. I'm real proud of the 
fact that my fellow citizens have contributed to the restorations 
building--it turns out, someone from the great State of Texas, notably 
Mercedes Bass. And I want to thank them and thank my citizens for 
supporting this important institute.
    I want to thank you all for giving me a chance to come by and listen 
to you. I want to hear your impressions of America. I want to hear what 
you think of the challenges as this really important country moves 
ahead. And I really want to hear how you intend to contribute to the 
future of your country.
    I want to thank you all for sponsoring these exchanges. Madam Mayor, 
I'm particularly pleased that you're here. You know, one of the best 
diplomacy--the best diplomacy for America, particularly among young 
folks, is to welcome you to our country. You get to see firsthand the 
truth about America, you know, like a lot of images. There's a lot of, 
in my view, misinformation and propaganda about our country. We're a 
compassionate, we're an open country. We care about people, and we're 
entrepreneurial. And we love the entrepreneurial spirit. We love it when 
somebody has a dream and then is--works hard to achieve the dream, 
thereby contributing to the society and creating jobs for people so they 
can realize their aspirations as well.
    And so I want to thank you, Ambassador, for getting this program 
going. And thank you all for coming to share your thoughts with me. I 
really am looking forward to hearing from you.
    We'll have--Marco, do you want to say a few words?
    Marco Palombi. Well, yes, Mr. President.
    President Bush. Marco, what do you do?
    Mr. Palombi. I actually sold my company a year-and-a-half ago. I 
was----
    President Bush. Oh, so you retired?
    Mr. Palombi. Well, no, no. [Laughter] Not yet, no.
    President Bush. Okay.

[[Page 827]]

    Mr. Palombi. We actually created, with Michele, the NGO the 
Ambassador was referring us for.
    President Bush. Oh, that's good. Thank you.
    Mr. Palombi. Yes. So basically, I created the largest blogging 
platform in Italy.
    President Bush. Really?
    Mr. Palombi. Yes, yes, yes. And then I sold it to one of the largest 
media company in Italy.
    President Bush. Well, congratulations.

[Mr. Palombi made brief remarks, concluding as follows.]

    Mr. Palombi. So what we did was basically introduce our friends who 
have achieved something in Italy too. We call them first generation 
entrepreneurs, because we think that the best role model will be someone 
who started from zero, who doesn't have his parents' money behind, and 
he really started from scratch, he risked. And we chose these guys, and 
we had these video chats on the Internet, which we--which are now there. 
And it's one of the best, probably, entrepreneurship material that you 
have in Italy right now. It's funny because right now, talking to people 
who have watched this video chats, they really are motivated by what 
they see. And this is amazing because you can change things by showing 
them that someone like them did it.
    President Bush. Absolutely. That's good. Thanks, Marco.
    Mr. Palombi. Sure.
    President Bush. You ready?
    Micol Macellari. Yes, I'm ready. [Laughter]
    President Bush. Micol.
    Ms. Macellari. I'm Micol, yes.
    President Bush. Yes, thank you.

[Ms. Macellari made brief remarks, concluding as follows.]

    Ms. Macellari. I really think--I strongly believe that in Italy, we 
have everything we need to make a success and to turn a good scientific 
project in business and bring greatest scientific idea to the market. We 
have a strong example of entrepreneurs that did so. So on our own, we 
can follow----
    President Bush. Absolutely.
    Ms. Macellari ----his example. And we can represent, as the first 
people who've gone there, a good example for all the other students for 
the future years.
    President Bush. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. in the Villa Aurelia at the 
American Academy. In his remarks, he referred to philanthropist Mercedes 
T. Bass; and Mayor Letizia Moratti of Milan. Ambassador Spogli referred 
to Luciano Martucci, president and chief executive officer, IBM Italy. 
Participating in the discussion were U.S. Ambassador to Italy Ronald P. 
Spogli; 2007 BEST program participants Abramo Barbaresi, Elisabetta 
Capezio, Valentina Coccoli, Micol Macellari, and Emanuele Orgiu; 2008 
BEST program participants Francesco Cattaneo, Chiara Giovenzana, and 
Michela Piacenti; and BEST program participant mentors Michele Appendino 
and Marco Palombi.