Strengthening the role of regions in relations with strategic partners

Relations with strategic partners such as Japan must be carefully cultivated also through the strengthening of the role of the regions, especially in the current international context characterized by instability and profound uncertainties. This was stated by the president of Friuli Venezia Giulia and president of the Conference of the Regions, Massimiliano Fedriga, during the inauguration ceremony of the week dedicated to Friuli Venezia Giulia at the Italian pavilion at the Expo in Osaka, Japan. For the president, the only way to guarantee a future of freedom, trust and well-being for future generations “is to build a solid network of alliances based on shared values and objectives. Differences, where they do not lead to a desire to dominate, constitute an invaluable heritage”. Therefore, “we need to build and grow bridges of dialogue”, explained Fedriga. The region’s presence at the Expo coincides with the Japanese festivities of the “Golden week” and with a week dedicated by the Expo to artistic and cultural co-creation. “It will be a ‘golden week’ in all respects, with a program that aims to capture attention and arouse emotions”, added Fedriga. Friuli Venezia Giulia “is a small region that offers a very broad experience: in an hour you can go from the Dolomites to the Adriatic Sea, passing through cities of art and all the food and wine circuits that our region can offer. We are not a mass destination, but a destination that tells the story of a different Italy”. Precisely to tell its story, Friuli Venezia Giulia will present excellences such as the Carnic Museum of Popular Arts “Michele Gortani”, the Scriptorium Foroiuliense, the School of Mosaicists and Lace, the Furniture and Home Cluster at the Italian Pavilion. At the Italian Pavilion, 6 ambassadors of know-how will tell the story of the region’s excellence. Comics will also be at the heart of the Friuli Venezia Giulia week at the Expo: a memorandum of understanding between the Kyoto International Manga Museum and the Palazzo del Fumetto in Pordenone was signed at the Italian Pavilion at the end of today’s ceremony.

The region also presents itself to Japan and the world as a land of culture: Gorizia and Nova Gorica were elected the first European capital of culture between two states, Italy and Slovenia. Pordenone, on the other hand, will be the Italian capital of culture in 2027. To celebrate this double recognition, the region is organizing a vast calendar of events. In the largest Venetian villa, Villa Manin, the exhibition “Confini” will be held from 11 October 2025 to 12 April 2026, which will bring together over one hundred great works of art by some of the greatest international artists of the 800th and 900th centuries, such as Van Gogh e Manet. And then the exhibition on Ungaretti “poet and soldier” scheduled in Gorizia next October, which will tell the story of the Carso between poetry, painting and history. Right in Gorizia, the region has undertaken the redevelopment of a gallery with cutting-edge methods, making it a space for the exhibition of digital art that will be inaugurated with the works of the world-famous artist Refik Anadol, known among other works for the Sphere in Las Vegas. To celebrate Gorizia and Pordenone as great capitals of culture, the region will host concerts by great artists such as Robbie wiliams e Alanis Morissette. There will also be no shortage of cinema, with well-established festivals such as the Far East Film Festival in Udine, the largest European film festival dedicated to Far Eastern cinema. As highlighted today by the ambassador Mario Vattani, Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, the contribution of Friuli Venezia Giulia to the contents of the Italian pavilion is functional to the narrative that our country wanted to bring to Expo, under the theme “Art regenerates life”. A story based first and foremost on physical and direct contact with art: not only through the exhibition of original works of inestimable value in the Italian pavilion, such as “Atlante Farnese” and “Deposizione di Caravaggio”, but also through the experience with the infinite variety of Italian “Saper fare”, and its artisan excellence.

And last but not least, sport and martial arts: they too are vehicles of a refined sensitivity of being that is at the center of a new humanism that Italy brings to Expo as the linchpin of the concept of “future society for our lives”. “The presence of the president of the Conference of the Regions Fedriga at the beginning of Italy’s journey to Expo is significant in many ways. We have worked together since the beginning to give space to the Italian regions”, explained Vattani. “This gives the measure of how characteristic of our nation this variety of cultures and territories, colors and flavors is. We cannot fail to talk about it in depth, and so did our friends from Friuli Venezia Giulia in setting up the space of the Italian pavilion that for a week will be dedicated to their region”, concluded the ambassador. The centrality reserved for culture and traditional craftsmanship does not, however, overshadow the world of entrepreneurship and business and the centrality played by Japan as a strategic partner of Italy, also on the commercial and economic development level. As explained by Fedriga, the presence of Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Italian regions at the Osaka Expo, thanks to the stage offered by the Italian Pavilion, is functional first of all to strengthen relations with Japan, thus reaffirming “the will of the system of regions, and of the productive world that it represents, to govern its own future”: a will that is expressed, with regard to the Asian country in particular, in its elevation to the role of strategic partner and in its integration into the development prospects linked to strategic corridors such as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (Imec). It is precisely in this context that Friuli Venezia Giulia can place itself with authority, a gateway to continental and Balkan Europe with strong excellence in the field of logistics and innovation. Already on Friday, Friuli Venezia Giulia was the protagonist of the Italian Pavilion on the occasion of an extraordinary edition of the “Selecting Italy” conference, dedicated to attracting foreign investments.

The event was jointly organized by the autonomous region and the Conference of Regions, and sponsored by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and Enterprises and Made in Italy. 130 institutions and businesses took part, including 31 Japanese companies that already operate in Italy or are interested in investing in the country. Among the participants, in addition to President Fedriga, there was also the Deputy Minister for Enterprises and Made in Italy Valentine Valentini and the governor of Osaka Hirofumi Yoshimura, who called for a “deepening of economic exchanges” between the two countries. In its attractiveness and potential, “Italy can represent an opportunity for Japan, but we need to know how to tell the specifics of our territories,” Fedriga told “Nova Agency” on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony. Analyzing Japanese investments in Europe, Italy, compared to Spain and France, “does not occupy the top positions. We must be able to tell the specificities of our territories” to show “their potential. We brought Selecting Italy abroad on the occasion of the Expo and we received important recognition from Japan. We are trying to propose all the Italian regions with their production peculiarities”, explained Fedriga, according to whom the dialogue and the relationship of Friuli Venezia Giulia with Japan “can be strategic. Today we tried to tell the story of an Italy that is different from the one that is traditionally proposed at an international level, proposing high-quality tourism, less known than the mass tourism that the Japanese know”, clarified the president. “We presented Friuli Venezia Giulia from a tourist and cultural point of view, also describing the region’s ability to be an exporter at a global level and to offer important opportunities”, concluded Fedriga.