Romano Prodi cuts the ribbon at Eiffelgres

Jun 30, 2003

30/06/03 � At the opening ceremony for the innovative Eiffelgres factory (Iris Group), the President of the European Commission Romano Prodi outlined his recipe for guiding the industry out of recession.

�Entrepreneurs must focus on technologies, on intellectual work, because innovation is created in the factory and innovation is essential for survival�.
His message was shared by Romano and Federica Minozzi, Chairpersons respectively of the Iris Group and Eiffelgres, which plan to spend 5 million euro a year in research and innovation.
Representing an investment of 50 million euro, the Eiffelgres factory is one of the most advanced facilities of its kind in the world and will produce marble imitation through-bodied porcelain tile (90,000 sq.m works area and a production capacity when fully operative of 5 million sq.m/year).

According to Mr Prodi, work should be �90% intellectual� in the future.
However, training and research remain critical aspects for Italy. �Our country is committed to spending 3% of our income on research, but we have still not got beyond 1.8%.
If we do not make further efforts, we will find ourselves unable to stave off competition from China and the United States.� The President of the European Commission continued to quote the example of China, which �up to 6-7 years ago had a ceramic tile output that was a quarter of Italy�s but is now double. This represents an extraordinary learning capacity.�

The new Eiffelgres factory, Mr Prodi concluded, is an example of the Italian know-how that we must make every effort to preserve.