Given the important links between research, innovation and regulation, businesses, universities and institutions are being called upon to work in unison to reinforce and improve Italian competitiveness and with it the economy. Indeed, highly innovative businesses, for example, consider regulation an effective aid to economic progress and the creation of value added benefits.
Europe is finally being put to the vote. Of course, the parties of individual nations will continue to count, and national issues will hold a certain importance for citizens called to the polls. But in the end what will be at stake is a new idea of Europe, because this time, and as never before, the European construction is going to be judged politically.
The aim of this Aspen Institute Italia round table was to examine the public administration’s role in meeting the challenges posed by technological innovation. A background document entitled “Public administration and digital platform capitalism” was presented during the meeting.
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 The very concept of the “job market” seems outdated in a world where skills are increasingly becoming the real currency.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 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 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 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 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.
