This seminar got underway with the participants noting that the Italian industrial system has succeeded in weathering the global crisis whilst maintaining the country’s position as a leading manufacturer both in Europe and worldwide. The more or less stable performance of the Italian production system has enabled the economy to respond to stimulus, though the signs of recovery remain weak.
This session focused on the crucial role played by infrastructure in any given country’s economic development. It was observed that an adequate endowment of tangible infrastructure is a necessary prerequisite for competing in the global market, and that boosting infrastructure levels is an undeniable priority both for Italy and for Europe. The question of trans-European infrastructure is especially gaining increasing importance.
This session of the Aspen Seminars for Leaders examined various institutional scenarios, viewed from the perspective of changes taking place at the European and global level and the reform processes that these call for within Italy. It was observed that, on the one hand, the search for more stable global macroeconomic balances has been accompanied by European debate concerning the tightening of fiscal regulation, changes to the Growth and Stability Pact, and putting in place adequate mechanisms to deal with emergency situations.
In this seminar, the participants examined what were identified as the major areas requiring action to enable Italy to face the new and increasingly impelling global challenges. The three areas singled out were: innovation policies, tangible and intangible knowledge-system infrastructure, and education models conducive to promoting employment and competitiveness.
The discussion in this session focused on the role of culture in the wake of the global crisis. In this regard, the participants highlighted the increasing search for a more harmonious, sustainable and forward-looking social model, yet one that is anchored in the roots of national identity. With the global crisis, this quest for a new kind of paradigm of development has, even in Italy, once again focused what perhaps was otherwise languishing interest on the crucial importance of “culture”.
The last minute lifeline thrown to Greece to keep it from possible default opened a series of urgent questions on the future of the single currency, Europe as a political entity and, more in general, the relationship between finance and the real economy. The crisis concerned not only the precarious economic and social situation of Greece – which will inevitably have to pass through a period of deep-seated and predictably painful restructuring. It also shed light on the series of actions that should be taken to prevent possible contagion with other European countries.
The seminar, divided into three sessions, studied the main institutional economic and social causes holding back adequate growth in the South and its ability to reach the levels of growth seen in the North.
The internet revolution has brought great changes to the communications industry, both in terms of infrastructures and contents. For infrastructures, the scenario shows a different level of investment, a change in keeping with regulation and new business models. Today’s prospects are for a Pan-European map that should provide guidelines for the sector’s new organization.
After the crisis, a new paradigm of development is emerging: more solid, anchored to shared values and projected to the construction of a future beyond the ordinary handling of the emergency. Over recent months, there has been discussion on the wave of moderate optimism brought on by commentators and economists, with figures in hand, to pronounce the imminent end of the economic and financial storm that occurred after 2008.
The debate centered around two main points: investment in knowledge and human capital, and research and innovation. These two issues are determining factors of growth and competitiveness and together they represent the basic needs to survive, revive the economy and meet the challenges of the future.
The global economic crisis is reshaping the energy system in a fundamental way, as extraordinary events have occurred in a very short time span. Six issues appear the most crucial in the current context: i) the discovery of shale gas, a transformational event which was also a consequence of high natural gas prices. According to a recent account, this discovery could potentially turn the US into a permanent net exporter, with dramatic implications on the market for liquefied natural gas (LNG) which now seeks markets when global demand is contracting.
The complexities of the current global macroeconomic situation are pushing the world economy in many different directions. The US is undertaking a second round of quantitative easing in order to buy protection against a deflationary risk. China is slowly allowing the RMB to appreciate while preparing the next 5 year plan as it transitions from an economy with unlimited resources and limited interactions with the rest to the world into an economy that is starting to feel a deteriorating growth/inflation trade off and is becoming a key player in international trade and markets.
“This plague has been a great scourge, but it has also served as a good broom, for it has swept away some, my children, from whom I never thought we would free ourselves… If things always worked out this way with the plague, it would really be a sin to speak ill of it”. It was in these words that the character of Don Abbondio, in Manzoni’s The Betrothed, described the epidemic that had brought about the demise of Don Rodrigo.
This seminar, focusing on the topic of cities of the future, brought together specialists in the field of urbanism, local administrators, entrepreneurs, urban traffic experts and representatives from the welfare sector. Divided into three day-long sessions, dealing with governing complexity, competitiveness and quality of life respectively, the seminar raised various issues for debate and put forward a series of concrete proposals aimed at resolving the many problems afflicting the governance of Italian cities.
In response to the crisis, the State has intervened to rescue banks and financial institutions, to restore confidence in the market, and to guarantee loans and transactions. Within the space of a few weeks, the State in many countries has become the largest shareholder in major banks and insurance companies, resuming the role it had abandoned during the protracted era of privatizations.
The participants at this ASL seminar observed that history has always been marked by periods of change – the current one being no exception. The failure of the economic paradigms that underpinned Western development for decades has triggered a widespread sense of fear, which has translated into mistrust and instinctive and irrational behaviors.
The approval of a renewable energy and climate change legislative package by the European Union in December 2008 is part of a wider push to formulate a global policy to combat climate change. Indeed, the Copenhagen Conference to be held in December this year will play a key role in deciding what should follow the Kyoto Protocol once it expires in 2012.
The participants in this talk-debate noted that by acknowledging the existence of various “Souths” in Italy rather than continuing to speak of “the South”, efforts have been made in recent years to mitigate the persistence of the serious and unresolved question of the South. The underlying hope has been that, by differentiating between the various areas of Italy’s Mezzogiorno, widespread change and gradual renewal might be encouraged to take root.
The seminar discussions got underway with the observation that international energy markets are the litmus test of a crisis whose outcomes are still uncertain. The dramatic slump in global demand has triggered a sharp fall in prices, but speculative interests and unfounded concerns that the peak oil point is approaching continue to artificially sustain share prices at levels that lack any sound market justification.
The Seminar discussions highlighted the divide that exists in Italy today between the core research sector and the business world. It was noted that there is a lack of osmosis capable, on the one hand, of making the most of potential and, on the other, of integrating it into a productive strategy to support the country’s economy. There is a need for the State to coordinate research centers, health authorities, industry and the regulatory sphere, in accordance with policy choices formulated on the basis of the health needs of the country.
