photo: Archive / Archive/DITECFERs' Cluster Coordinator: We’re focused on adopting advanced technologies
RAILTARGET presents you with an exclusive interview with Veronica Elena Bocci, Cluster Coordinator of DITERCFER and vice president of ERCI. What are the company’s plans for the future, and what’s their stance on GreenDeal?
I would like to ask you how did you enjoy today's conference in Ljubljana?
It was a very interesting conference, I came directly from Italy to participate and represent the Italian railway cluster. The idea was to share our experience with our peers here and in the South-East Europe area, specifically to meet Slovenian companies, mainly SMEs with whom we can collaborate to integrate a supply chain also to Italian companies.
Also, I would like to ask you if you are going to some other conferences or fairs this year?
Sure and we’re happy that the Covid Era is apparently over and we can meet physically, so we’re heading to Innotrans in Berlin, which is absolutely a must-see and a must-visit exhibition. After four years, all the railways' stakeholders from every part of the world will meet again and discuss improvements in the industry and also innovation. So, we’ll meet our companies and other European railway clusters there.
And what about your future plans in the railway business area, if you have any?
Sure, many of them are based on European projects that I’m currently coordinating and all of them have kind of a fil rouge that is helping SMEs of the rail supply industry to be more innovative, competitive, or international. This is something that we’re dealing with and we’re focused on adopting advanced technologies, which is a key topic for competitiveness and we’re developing a new method to help SMEs to be able to adopt such technologies, from Blockchain to Artificial Intelligence. They can be so far away from ordinary business, but, actually, they’re not and we’re helping the companies discover their potential.
Do you think that, for example, the topic of the Green Deal is helping the railway sector to grow?
It will. Also, because the railway sector has a very competitive positioning and it‘s by far the greenest transport sector and is leading the way in this sense. But we know that we can do more and we’re identifying for each part of the value chain what improvements can be introduced, and helping from large companies to the smaller ones identify this and be even more green.