Water is an undeniable human right essential to the life and health of all citizens. Its distribution, however, is a complex process that presupposes the existence of a proper industrial sector equipped to deliver it from the supply source to the private home while maintaining high standards of quality and service.
The global economy is undergoing deep and rapid changes that are revolutionizing how production is organized. The very concept of the “job market” seems outdated in a world where skills are increasingly becoming the real currency. If the most innovative firms’ main demand is for talent, however, it is impossible to imagine a future without policies tailored to the transition that the majority of workers are going to have to face as they adapt to the continuing changes imposed by digitalization.
The crises of 2008 and 2011 had a greater impact on Umbria than they did on other parts of Italy and Europe. Conditions had already begun to deteriorate in the early 2000s, creating a division between Umbria, a region with a great manufacturing tradition, and the wealthier parts of the country. The study presented at the conference cited microeconomic data about the origins of the crisis and highlighted a sharp polarization of companies’ competitiveness.
Italy is, by far, leader of Europe’s circular economy, recuperating double the European average of raw material, much more than the Germans in all sectors, but especially in hypercompetitive ones such as wood/furniture. Much needs to be improved, however, in the proper management of every phase of the waste cycle (from collection to recovery to disposal) which is an integral part of the circular economy. A single southern Italian region – Sardinia – reports recycling and reuse percentages far above the European average.
Italy has great potential to attract investments but many factors still hinder the influx of foreign capital. Data on the presence of multinationals offer a mottled picture. As regards the manufacturing sector, the more important of the second ranked European industrial power, nearly 20% of employees answer to foreign multinationals, a percentage that rises to 25% in the field of mechanical engineering, the pride of the “made in Italy” brand.
Wedged as they are between factors that limit profitability and competition from Fintech companies, banks are being forced to innovate. In a European scenario penalized by low interest rates, Italian credit institutions are also suffering the impact of the country’s low economic growth and of trends affecting the government bonds, of which they are the principal holders. Added to all this is a European legislative framework that has continued to evolve over recent years and that has prioritized the reduction of risk associated with non-performing loans.
Current economic data offer a conflicting pitcure of the Italian country system. Some of the numbers are encouraging: the balance of payments is positive, inflation is low and portfolio investments in Italian assets have once again begun to rise, in some cases surpassing pre-2008 financial downturn levels. At the same time, unemployment levels, low growth and a public debt at near historic heights are evidence of how some key problems are far from having been resolved.
Brexit and all the uncertainty it is generating constitute an entirely new and potentially destabilizing element for financial markets.
London has long functioned as Europe’s main financial market despite being located outside the Eurozone. The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union now places Europe at a crossroads: either reach an agreement making it possible to maintain a good portion of operations in London or begin the long and painstaking task of creating a continental marketplace.
The theme of mobility is central to current reflections on economic development, and considerations on the mobility of persons and goods – to which approximately 29% of global CO2 emissions can be attributed – is a special focus.
Wealth creation, energy demand and CO2 emissions continued even through 2018, building on the trend of the previous year. With every day that passes, the problem of reducing emissions becomes more urgent and its complexity more evident. A complexity that began to emerge at the very beginning of annual emission measurement but that does not offer a holistic rendering of the phenomenon.
The participants at this national roundtable described Italian agriculture as a sector which, although growing, is still replete with shortcomings. The industry has shown that it can shift exports of over 41 billion euro, but this is still not in the league of Germany’s 80 billion euro figure. It was felt that the sector continues to suffer from insufficient competitiveness, due mainly to a lack of investment and innovation.
The international system is at a highly uncertain stage of transition, both in terms of the economy and of politics and security. Following the acceleration in growth and trade (in part, certainly positive) owing to the globalization mainly of the 1990s, a series of tensions have become manifest in the form of regional crises and global instability. Profound technological changes – those macroscopic in the financial sector, but not only – have had a direct effect on the social structure of individual states and on balances of power.
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.
Kicking off discussions at this National Interest event was the observation that the opening of Italy’s 18th legislature would seem to portend a new order within Italian society, among the various political parties, and within the country’s institutions. Power relations between the parties, as well as the interplay between them and the key priorities for debate, have changed.
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.
Discussions at this National Interest event devoted to the topic of changing the way independent regulatory watchdogs are governed spanned a number of issues. It was noted that such authorities, representing an embodiment of the widespread phenomenon of polycentric decision-making characteristic of the modern state, emerged in order to meet certain needs of states, such as relieving overburdened parliaments by delegating regulatory functions and introducing a certain degree of pluralism in administrative structures to cope with the increasing frequency of international dealings.
