Over 1,000 companies are taking part in a major conference next week on the rebuilding of Ukraine - a future European Union member, foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on Saturday.
The conference will be "a great event, in which over a thousand companies will participate to lay the crucial groundwork for the reconstruction of Ukraine, a country that will join the EU and the internal market," Tajani stated.
"We are already helping with aid of all kinds, but together with Ukraine we also want to play a leading role in the country's reconstruction phase," Tajani underlined.
Many Ukrainian "interlocutors" will also attend the 26 April conference, which aims to signal Italy's "great closeness" to the war-ravaged country, he said.
The government also wants to use the conference to promote the "know-how" of our companies in a raft of sectors including infrastructure, energy grids and construction, Tajani noted.