NEW YORK (UNITED STATES) (ITALPRESS) – No more a ballast or a crisis factor, but a motor for the growth of the country, also able to attract investments from abroad. The South, which also started thanks to regulatory innovations such as the Special Economic Zone, was at the centre of the conference “Investing in Southern Italy”, organized by the Magna Grecia Foundation in collaboration with ENIT and Italy America Chamber of Commerce, at the Italian Institute of Culture in New York.“A South that grows and gives guarantees of legality also represents an investment on human capital, on social capital, on the new structure of the Mezzogiorno – said Nino Foti, President. – The new legislation concerning the Special Economic Area exceeds one of the major difficulties encountering entrepreneurs, i.e. time to have an authorization to open an enterprise. The focus of this meeting, here in New York, is the attraction of investments and we want to make a serious and concrete contribution, so that there is development and a new vision of our Mezzogiorno”.“South Italy today represents one of the most promising areas for investments in the Mediterranean – said the undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers with delegation to the South, Luigi Sbarra -. A perspective that finds concrete confirmation in the results achieved and in the increasing interest of international investors towards our country,” he added. For Sbarra “Mezzogiorno is today a reality that sees GDP grow more than other areas of the country, repartite public and private investments, strengthens export, the employment rate has reached the maximum historical with about 500 thousand new jobs. It is necessary to consolidate and strengthen this trajectory, a necessary condition to recover historical differences with the rest of the country and Europe.” For Massimo Dell’Utri, undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, “it is certainly no longer the South that is only tourism and culture, but a South that is also technological innovation. A South that has its startups and evolves in sectors ranging from pharmaceutical to electronics and a whole range of activities that can also cover medicine with a number of important services and opportunities for local growth.” The Magna Grecia Foundation, during the event, presented an Observatory for Investments in the Mezzogiorno and illustrated the research activity “Italy heritage of health”, which will be further developed in the coming months in collaboration with ENIT. An innovative study that highlights the potential of five assets of the Italian heritage that can be able to produce health: therapeutic forests, material culture, intangible and valuable culture of the territories, Mediterranean diet and diet, thermal waters. Assets on which to build important tourist routes. On the application of the new legislation for the single ZES and on the results achieved, the intervention of Giosi Romano, Head of Department for the South of the Presidency of the Council and Coordinator of the Single ZES Mission Structure was focused. In less than two years since the new legislation was activated – he explained – we managed to release more than 1,300 authorizations and generate a total of about 9 billion euros of investment. This intervention, together with that of tax credit, is succeeding in stimulating the participation of companies, confirming that through a streamlined and effective legislation, important results can be obtained. “The image of the South has already changed – said Giuseppe Pastorelli, Italian Consul General in New York. What we have to do is continue to tell a story of development, talent and opportunity. This conference really gives this signal. I thank you for the opportunity we had in New York to involve investors, entrepreneurs and opinion makers tomericani, to pass the message that the South is a land of opportunity where traditions, culture, talent and innovation are founded.” For Alessandro Scortecci, Chief Investment Officer – Direct Investments of CDP Venture Capital “South is not a burden for Italy, but it is and can be even more the engine of ecosystem growth. The things we ask entrepreneurs, the startuppers of the South, are definitely an idea based on a strong technology, a team with skills and strong, strong, determination, as well as the ability and vision to grow and scale not only in Italy, but also abroad”. According to Federico Tozzi, executive director of Italy America Chamber of Commerce, “today you really look at the area of the South as a development area, but also where you can move to live. The south is a place to invest, it is a place to invest, and it is a place to live”. Focus on the fight against crime by Antonio Nicaso, professor at Queen’s University of Canada. “The mafia must not be neither an alibi nor a taboo – he explained. One must recognize the existence, the presence of the mafia, but cannot prevent those who want to invest in the South to do so. It is necessary to attract credible investors who can exploit and value the territory. The problem of mafia can be solved in other ways, but it cannot be an obstacle to investment in the South.” “The Magna Grecia Foundation has this vision: the South that can truly become a growth engine and regain its place as it was in the times of Magna Grecia – said Claudio Pagliara, director of the Italian Institute of Culture in New York. I think New York has capital to allow the South to trigger a new development cycle.” Today, Antonello Colosimo, president of the Control Section on the Boards of the Court of Auditors and the Odv Foundation Magna Grecia, concluded, is “an opportunity to truly create a bridge between the United States of America and Italy. The Foundation seeks to collect the demands of Italian-American entrepreneurs and to promote participation in the opportunities that, with ZES and with all the regulations that favor the possibility of having tax contributions and credits, are transformed into investments in the Italian meridian. Great advantage of employment, great return and also a way of reinforcing ties with their lands of origin”.
– photo xo9/Italpress –(ITALPRESS).
