The participants at this national roundtable noted that digitalization is a paradigm that is not only revolutionizing the economy but the whole of society. This transformation transcends geographical boundaries, is not confined to particular sectors, and has also changed the market and the contractual rules that for decades have governed dealings between different economic actors.
Discussions at this National Conference kicked off with the observation that Italy’s trade-fair sector is a key tool for promoting the country’s economy. Not only do successful events have an important economic impact on the area in which they are hosted, with a potentially greater than tenfold multiplier effect, but trade fairs also offer crucial support to businesses.
Investments, culture, sharing: three elements that pundits and professionals consider indispensable to making System Italy resistant to cyber threats.
The starting premise of discussions at this national roundtable was that the issue of air transport owes its considerable complexity to the sheer number of stakeholders involved. The interests and different perspectives of airport operators, airline companies, travelers, local authorities, and other competing and combined transport networks were seen as calling for a synergistic approach both on the part of these players themselves and of the State.
The participants at this roundtable noted that there is practically unanimous consensus on the need to rise to the challenge of achieving eco-sustainable mobility, a necessary objective in order to meet the Paris Agreement’s target of keeping the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C. The issue was viewed as one primarily concerning the health of both the present generation and the next.
Aspen Institute Italia’s aim in organizing this roundtable was to provide an opportunity to reflect on the processes that have characterized public administrative reform in Italy in recent years. In the course of the proceedings, a new Aspen Report was presented entitled “Public-sector reforms in Italy during the 17th legislature: their impetus, outcomes, and objectives”.
Aspen Institute Italia’s aim in organizing this roundtable was to foster debate on the challenges involved in integrating foreigners into Italian society. By way of introduction, it was noted that, over the years, the number of foreign nationals permanently residing in Italy has grown steadily and is set to continue to rise, as will the number of immigrants acquiring Italian citizenship. In a very short space of time, Italy’s society has been transformed, in line with what has happened in other countries such as France and the United Kingdom, and can no longer be considered mono-ethnic.
Discussions at this national roundtable opened with the observation that the tax reforms signed into law by the Trump administration have an air of momentousness about them and have a significant impact on corporate taxation, with the company tax rate reduced from 35% to 21%. The impact on personal income tax is, however, decidedly more modest, with the tax rate cut by merely 2.6 percentage points, dropping from 39.6% to 37%. In addition, the former measure is, at least in theory, permanent, while the latter – for reasons tied to US parliamentary rules – will end in 2025.
Discussions at this roundtable kicked off with the observation that global economic growth, which has been particularly strong over the past year, has brought with it well-known benefits in terms of development (helping to combat extreme poverty, for instance), yet it has also marked a reversal in the trend of CO2 atmospheric emissions, which, after having stabilized for a three-year period, are rising again at a rate of around 1.5%. This once again poses the question of what measures are needed to decouple growth from emissions.
Smart factories, interconnected cities, and fifty billion objects hooked up to the internet by 2020: these were some of the facets of the digital revolution flagged by the roundtable participants as transforming the economic and social fabric of both advanced and developing countries. This ramping-up of technology was regarded as a game-changer, opening the doors to Industry 4.0, the promised benefits of which are manifold, including maximum volume flexibility, faster transition from prototyping to mass production, increased productivity, and reduced waste.
Though acknowledged as unpredictable in its consequences like every momentous turning point of the past, the fourth industrial revolution was hailed by participants at this national roundtable as entirely unique in terms of its pervasiveness, the profundity of the transformations induced, and the speed of the changes occasioned, marking something of a “progressive watershed” between one age and another.
Enjoying financial success and great international appeal but needing a rethink of its offerings and prospects was how participants at this roundtable described the Italian interior design industry, with the sector having reached a peculiar historical juncture. It was noted that the 2017 edition of the Salone del Mobile international furniture fair set new records in terms of attendance numbers and interest attracted among an extensive audience of foreign visitors.
Kicking off discussions at this roundtable was the observation that big data – seen by some as akin to “oil” in the sense that, like the latter, it needs to be “refined” in order to be useful – lies at the heart of data-driven innovation, the new industrial revolution. Like any revolution, it has important ramifications, in terms of new services and market dynamics, on economies and societies throughout the world.
Participants at this national roundtable highlighted smart energy and smart building as key components of the smart city concept. “Smartness” in urban contexts was seen as entailing the pursuit of two main objectives: efficiency in the face of resource scarcity, and a higher standard of living. To achieve these goals, it was deemed essential to focus efforts on three fronts in particular. Firstly, infrastructure is a necessary though insufficient precondition for services to be able to respond to complexity, which in urban contexts stems from an admixture of markedly varied needs.
The participants at this national roundtable vehemently challenged the veracity of a popular – now verging on hackneyed – belief that the Italian education system only churns out mediocrity. Nothing – it was felt – could be further from the truth. The tenor of education and training at an international level leans favorably towards the traditional system adopted in Italy which is based, in its essentials, on the Giovanni Gentile model.
Discussions at this national roundtable emphasized that sustainable mobility is a fundamental underpinning of any goods and people transport system that, while meeting movement and transportation needs, does not give rise to negative environmental and health impacts but rather contributes to ensuring improved quality of life.
