ROME, DECEMBER 13 – The new Italian Development Cooperation Agency director, Marco Riccardo Rusconi, officially took office today. Rusconi was appointed by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni a few weeks ago.
Born in Milan in 1972, Rusconi entered the diplomatic career in 1997. He held various positions, starting at the Italian Embassy in Madrid and Cairo, then serving as Consul General in Montreal and Permanent Representative to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). He also worked as a diplomatic advisor to the Ministers of the Environment and later the Energy Transition. In the last two and a half years, he was in charge of the Africa Office at the Directorate General for Development Cooperation, with additional responsibilities as Deputy Director General/Central Director for bilateral cooperation policies and emergency interventions.
“I begin this mandate guided by the spirit of the Italian Law on Cooperation, which considers Development Cooperation an integral and qualifying part of Italian foreign policy,” said Director Rusconi in his first statement. “The Agency is an essential instrument of cooperation, capable, through its network of offices abroad, of collecting the needs of partner countries and implementing, in a logic of equal partnership, quality initiatives and results-oriented projects. The Agency can constructively channel the natural drive for cooperation, as emphasized by the President of the Republic, which is a collective asset of our national community.”
This mandate comes at a time of growth for AICS, which now manages an almost one-billion-euro budget, including a European resource portfolio of 400 million euros, operates in 18 foreign offices, and is the main government agency implementing and financing development projects. AICS is ready to leverage its expertise and structures to contribute to the implementation of the so called ‘Mattei Plan’ to boost energy partnerships with Africa and cooperation on halting irregular migration flows, and strengthen Italian cooperation. (@OnuItalia)
