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Italy

Page history last edited by Brian D Butler 12 years, 6 months ago

Italy

Located in the heart of southern Europe, Italy has a Mediterranean coastline and mountainous Alpine borders with France, Austria, Switzerland and Slovenia.

With a population of 56 million, the country is an EU member and has a mixed economy with most activity concentrated in the northern cities of Milan, Turin, Genoa and to the south in Rome (the capital) and Naples. Companies that have invested in these areas include ITT, Exxon, Alcatel, ST Microelectronics, Thomson, Bull, Hoechst, Novartis and Glaxo Wellcome.

Although agriculture and manufacturing industries prevail, the country is increasingly been seen as a good high-tech location, in particular for telecommunications and new wireless technology given that the country boasts one of the highest penetrations of mobile telephone usage in Europe.

Table of Contents:

Politics:

Recent headline illustrates format of Italian politics:

Italy: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi won a confidence vote in parliament but failed to achieve the commanding majority needed (DeutscheWelle) for measures to revive the country's stalled economy.

Business:

Top companies in Italy:

18	ENI	Italy	Oil & Gas Operations	158.32	12.91	139.80	80.68
37	Intesa Sanpaolo	Italy	Banking	50.56	10.58	835.15	31.43
43	ENEL	Italy	Utilities	82.92	7.37	177.21	31.00
44	UniCredit Group	Italy	Banking	83.72	8.70	1,482.98	18.37
45	Generali Group	Italy	Insurance	118.39	4.26	546.50	21.35
94	Telecom Italia	Italy	Telecommunications Services	41.97	3.08	117.81	23.82
203	Fiat Group	Italy	Consumer Durables	82.70	2.25	82.55	5.60
224	Banca MPS	Italy	Banking	14.66	2.10	236.07	8.28
338	UBI Banca	Italy	Banking	10.84	1.29	176.93	6.09
369	Finmeccanica	Italy	Aerospace & Defense	20.93	0.79	33.82	7.42
465	Mediobanca	Italy	Diversified Financials	5.41	1.60	101.09	6.55
586	Banco Popolare	Italy	Banking	9.41	0.84	186.16	2.47
592	Edison	Italy	Utilities	15.41	0.48	20.86	4.84
648	Fondiaria-SAI	Italy	Insurance	19.04	0.74	65.75	1.81
677	Unipol	Italy	Insurance	13.38	0.57	66.05	2.16
716	A2A	Italy	Utilities	10.24	0.43	18.98	4.47
726	Atlantia	Italy	Transportation	4.72	0.56	22.52	7.50
757	Luxottica Group	Italy	Household & Personal Products	7.25	0.72	10.37	6.03
849	Mediaset	Italy	Media	5.89	0.74	8.92	5.08
889	BPER-Emilia Romagna	Italy	Banking	4.54	0.54	70.73	2.20
929	Banca Carige	Italy	Banking	3.51	0.30	39.90	4.83
962	Mediolanum	Italy	Insurance	5.74	0.31	34.57	2.45
977	Terna	Italy	Utilities	1.89	0.60	11.51	6.25
980	Banca Popolare di Milano	Italy	Banking	4.52	0.47	63.45	1.68
1069	Parmalat	Italy	Food, Drink & Tobacco	5.72	0.98	6.10	3.14
1078	Italmobiliare	Italy	Construction	9.34	0.32	17.89	0.96
1250	EXOR	Italy	Diversified Financials	3.88	0.65	13.19	1.53
1260	Pirelli & C	Italy	Consumer Durables	9.50	0.24	13.00	1.16

1265	Buzzi Unicem	Italy	Construction	5.10	0.67	7.96	1.94
1268	Credito Emiliano	Italy	Banking	2.97	0.36	38.28	0.88
1345	ERG	Italy	Oil & Gas Operations	14.84	0.25	7.59	1.81
1431	Cattolica Assicurazioni	Italy	Insurance	5.43	0.05	24.38	1.26
1450	Prysmian	Italy	Capital Goods	7.47	0.44	4.32	1.50
1486	Saras	Italy	Oil & Gas Operations	11.92	0.09	4.42	2.71
1501	Banca Popolare di Sondrio	Italy	Banking	1.48	0.06	30.30	2.43
1646	Banca Italease	Italy	Business Services & Supplies	1.18	-0.77	37.30	0.26
1778	CIR	Italy	Conglomerates	6.15	0.12	9.14	0.70
1810	Acea	Italy	Utilities	3.67	0.24	7.14	2.66
1813	Credito Valtellinese	Italy	Banking	1.59	0.12	25.11	1.42
1882	Autogrill	Italy	Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure	7.23	0.23	4.48	1.23
1886	Banco Desio	Italy	Banking	0.90	0.27	11.78	0.69

source: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/18/global-09_The-Global-2000_Counrty_6.html

Macro Economics

GDP fell by 5% in 2009. The OECD forecasts that by the end of 2010 it will have inched up by 0.1%, making Italy the slowest-growing member of the G7.

Crisis Update 2011:

"The Italian government has approved austerity measures worth 24bn euros for 2011-12. The cuts amount to about 1.6% of Italian GDP. Italy aims to cut public sector pay and freeze new recruitment. Public sector pensions and local government spending are also being targeted, and there are plans to crack down on tax evasion. Funding to city and regional authorities is expected to be cut by more than 13bn euros. For the next three years there will be a freeze on public sector pay rises and cuts in public sector hiring, replacing only one employee for every five who leave..." Read more from BBC here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10162176

Austerity 2010:

" The Italian government has approved austerity measures worth 24bn euros for the years 2011-2012. The cuts amount to about 1.6% of Italian GDP. Italy aims to cut public sector pay and freeze new recruitment. Public sector pensions and local government spending are also being targeted, and there are plans to crack down on tax evasion. Funding to city and regional authorities is expected to be cut by more than 13bn euros. For the next three years there will be a freeze on public sector pay rises and cuts in public sector hiring, replacing only one employee for every five who leave. Progressive pay cuts of up to 10% are planned for high earners in the public sector, including ministers and parliamentarians. Retirement will be delayed by up to six months for those who reach retirement age in 2011. Provincial governments serving fewer than 220,000 inhabitants will be scrapped, as will several publicly funded think-tanks." read more here: BBC.com

2009:

In Italy, bond issuance could rise to €220bn in 2009, with €100bn in redemptions in the first half of the year – about €20bn higher than usual – putting the government under even more pressure to raise money--> Italy reduced its economic rescue package due to fiscal constraints.

Investment Promotion Agency:

Sebastiano Marchese

Trade Promotion Officer

Italian Trade Commission

499 Park Avenue

6th Floor

New York

10022

USA

tel: +1 (0) 212 980 1500

fax: +1 (0) 212 758 1050

Politics:

Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament

Parties:

Mr Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL)
The vote was meant to have closed a rift on the right that opened two months ago when followers of Gianfranco Fini, once the prime minister’s closest ally, founded their own group in parliament, Future and Freedom for Italy (FLI).

After 150 years... will Italy remain a country?

Places in Italy:

Napoli

Naples is situated 120 miles south of Rome in the southern Campania region of Italy and has a population of 1.3 million.

The city lies on the Bay of Naples and is Italy’s second largest port after Genoa.

Central Italy

Central Italy includes Tuscany, the fifth largest region in Italy. Major urban areas within the region include Florence, Pisa and Siena.

The road and railway networks are well developed for regional circulation as well as national communications. Important highways and motorways and main railway lines mean links with places such as Bologna, Rome and Genoa. The major domestic airports are at Pisa San Giusto and Florence Peretola.

Pisa

Pisa is located in the North of Italy on the west coast. It is home to a number of technology-based centers such as Centrospazio - a space technology center which is involved in the development of advanced propulsion systems in cooperation with major aerospace companies and Agencies.

The Center for Energy and Environmental Technologies promotes R&D activities focused on environmental and energy-related applications. Other centers such as the Multimedia and Networks Applications Centre and the Microelectronics Technology and Applications Center are also active in the city.

Pisa is also part of the Italian Regional High-Tech Network which is promoted by Tuscany's Regional Authorities. This initiative was set up with the aim of creating a regional network based on the three strategic areas of Pisa, Florence and Siena to foster industry-university links and enhance business development, particularly in the High-Tech sectors.

The initiative also works to develop the West Tuscany Science and Technology Park in the area.

Tuscany

Tuscany is the fifth largest region in Italy and is located in the center of the country. Major urban areas within the region include Florence, Pisa and Siena.

Emilia-Romagna

Emilia-Romagna is a region in Italy with Bologna as its capital city. The region of 3.9 million people has an impressive transportation network with 2,000 miles of roadway and more than 1,000 miles of railway lines. Airports at Bologna, ForlÏ, Rimini and Parma offer daily international and domestic flights for both cargo and passengers. The Port of Ravenna, the chief port on the Adriatic Sea, links the region with northern Europe and the southern Mediterranean Sea.

Higher education in the region is provided at the Universities of Bologna, Ferrara, Forli, Reegio Emilia, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Rimini and Ravenna.

Bologna

Bologna is the capital city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. The city’s airport offers international and domestic flights for both cargo and passengers.

Bologna also has its own regional university.

Investment Promotion Agency:

ERVET SpA

Via Morgagni 6

Bologna

40122

Italy

tel: +39 (0) 51 6450411

fax: +39 (0) 51 222352

Parma

Parma is the provincial capital of the Emilia Romagna region in Italy. It is located half-way between Milan and Bologna and is famous as the capital food center of Italy.

Lazio

Lazio is a region in Central Italy sharing its borders with Tuscany, Umbria and Abruzzo. The region’s main commercial and cultural center is Rome, its capital city. The population distribution is heavily influenced by Rome, where 55% of the population is concentrated. The presence of the capital of Italy gives the region the fourth highest density of population in the country.

Key industries in the region are paper, petrochemicals, textile, engineering, automotive, food and electronics. Again as a result of Rome, approximately 73% of the working population is employed in the services sector; this considerable proportion is justified by the presence of the core of public administration, banking, tourism and insurance in the capital city.

All the major highways in the region converge on Rome, as does the railway network. The region’s two airports are Roma-Fiumicino, the most important in Italy, and Roma-Ciampino, for domestic flights

Rome

The Italian capital, Rome, is situated in the center of the country. One of the world’s most historical cities, it is today one of the most important power centers in southern Europe.

Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport, 35 km from the city, is one of Europe’s busiest with connections to most international destinations.

Lombardia

In the north east of the country, Lombardy is Italy’s most affluent and economically active region, with the city of Milan as its engine.

Excellent communications infrastructure with major international and domestic airports, as well as proximity to key markets in neighboring European countries, has made the region a favorite amongst international businesses.

Key industries include automotive, telecommunications and engineering.

Milan

Milan is the commercial center of Italy. It has two airports; Linate Airport, situated just 7 km from the city center and Malpensa Airport, both offering national and international flights.

Milan is home to two major universities – the University of Milan and Bocconi University. There is also a training institute (CEFRIEL) which specifically teaches IT-related subjects and courses, with over 60 people each year taking the Masters Degree in Information Technology.

North Eastern Italy

Padua

Padua is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of Padova Province. An industrial center, it has plants producing machinery, automotive parts, furniture, and plastics. The University of Padua is one of the oldest universities in Europe and consists of twelve schools including pharmacology, engineering and natural sciences

North Western Italy

North Western Italy includes the cities of Turin and historic port city of Genoa and borders the south of France to the west and the Swiss Alps to the north.

The Turin and Piedmont region is fast becoming the major center for technology companies, with the largest percentage of national R&D spend.

The region specializes in key sectors such as automotive, information and communication technology and logistics. It has a developing telecoms cluster with around 4000 companies, including operators such as Telecom, Omnitel and Infostrada. The cluster was given a boost by Motorola’s recent decision to locate its European R&D center in Turin.

Piedmont is the only Italian region with specialized science and technology parks. For biotechnology companies, the Bioindustry Park Canavese provides an ideal infrastructure and commercial services. There is also the Environment Park for environment-based corporates and the P.S.T for telecommunications companies.

Other investors located in the region include Michelin, TRW, BICC, Ceat Corporation, Lear, L’Oreal, ,PPG Industries, SKF, United Technologies and YKK Corporation.

Turin

Turin and Piedmont is a region in the North West part of Italy. It is fast becoming the major center for technology companies in the country, with the largest percentage of national R&D spend. Caselle airport connects Turin to major European cities and Malpensa intercontinental airport is 100km from the city.

Other investors located in the region include Michelin, TRW, BICC, Ceat Corporation, Lear, L’oreal, ,PPG Industries, SKF, United Technologies and YKK Corporation.

Sardinia

Sardinia is an island in the Mediterranean, located south of Corsica and west of Italy.

Cagliari

Cagliari is located in Sardinia, off the western coast of Italy. The island has an airport and container port for access into European markets.

The sectors in which the companies are mainly involved are: mechanical, agro-business, textile, metallurgical, manufacturing and commercial services.

Cagliari Industrial Park is the largest and most important of the 23 industrial parks in Sardinia and offers the investor a capable telecoms and digital infrastructure and the provision of business services. As well as industrial parks, Cagliari is home to the Scientific and technological Park of Sardinia.

Investors in Cagliari are I.V.C., Bridgestone, Advance Technology, Heineken, Battell, SGS Thomson and IBM.

Sicily

The island of Sicily lies off the Italian peninsular in the Mediterranean Sea. This autonomous region is mainly agricultural and has dormant volcanic mountains in the north.

Main urban areas include Palermo, Catania and Messina, which taken together have a population of around 5 million.

Southern Italy

The region of Southern Italy includes the Adriatic port cities of Bari and Brindisi and is largely agricultural.

For companies moviong into the area, it has some of the best incentive packages available from the European Union

Italian south, the mezzogiorno the peninsular south, plus Sicily and Sardinia

It matters: the south accounts for a third of Italy’s population, half its unemployment and an immeasurable share of organised crime.

but... GDP per head in the mezzogiorno is almost as high as Israel’s (though below that of any country in the old EU 15). In 2007 Gioia Tauro in Calabria overtook Algeciras in Spain to become the busiest container port in the Mediterranean; and a striking commercial and leisure centre designed by Renzo Piano was added to an immense freight complex at Nola, near Naples. Some of Italy’s best wine now comes from Sicily. Some of its most sophisticated tourist destinations are places like Matera in Basilicata. And for years the Apulia region has grown at a healthy clip.

Infrastructure is often hopeless. It takes five hours to cross Sicily by rail from Palermo to Catania. How long it takes to drive from Salerno to Reggio di Calabria is a matter of chance. Work on modernising the A3 highway was due to finish six years ago, but will not now do so before 2011. The airport at Reggio could almost be in one of the poorer parts of South-East Asia. There is still no physical link between the mainland and Sicily, home to one in 12 Italians—and there remains much scepticism about the wisdom of the Berlusconi government’s promised bridge.

education: The quality of education in the south is much lower than in the north. A ranking by Shanghai’s Jiao Tong university put only three southern universities among Italy’s top 20, which are themselves hardly world-class.

mafia:

Perhaps the biggest concern of all is the pervasiveness of organised crime. Police in Sicily have recently dealt a string of devastating blows to the Mafia, called the Cosa Nostra. But Calabria remains firmly in the grip of the ’Ndrangheta, and Naples and its surrounding region of Campania are still in thrall to the Camorra (see article). Organised crime bleeds healthy firms of cash they might otherwise spend on investment or R&D. And it reinforces the league’s argument that spending money on the mezzogiorno is pointless because it goes to mafiosi and corrupt politicians.

drive for autonomy ?

source: see Economist Article here: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14214871

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