As the sixth largest world economy and with 60 million consumers, Italy has always offered numerous opportunities for international investment. Its location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean, its reputation for creativity and design, its high number of SMEs, its highly skilled workforce and high standard of living make it an attractive option for the overseas investor.
Italy is unique in the EU for the number of SMEs, often family-run businesses employing less than 100 people. Many of these are located in Italy's 'industrial districts'. An industrial district is defined as a conglomeration of small and medium sized businesses focussing on single production in a specific geographical area.
As with other economies, Italy's situation has changed dramatically in the last two years. Industries have been repositioning themselves to take account of the global credit crunch, the effect of competition from the Asian market, particularly China, and the exchange rate fluctuations between the stronger Euro and other currencies including the dollar and the pound.
At the lower end of the market, Italy cannot compete with cheap produce from overseas. Many local markets throughout the country are now flooded with goods made in China. Therefore the focus is now on doing what Italy does best - producing high end, cutting edge, quality products in the areas of consumer goods (such as footwear, fashion and design) and precision engineering.
Opportunities for Investment
Three areas stand out as having been relatively unaffected by the current global crisis: wine making, tourism and real estate.
Italy is the fourth most-visited country in the world and so anything connected with the hospitality industry from restaurants to hotels and agritourism is still a good investment bet as long as it is in an established tourist area (the cities - Rome, Florence, Venice for example) or in a growth area like Puglia or Basilicata.
Wine making generated 3,919.4 million Euros in 2008, outperforming confectionary production and pasta making. Despite a fall in national wine consumption, this continues to be a flagship Italian export.
The amount of cross-border investment in real estate increased from 41% (2006) to 58% of total estimated investments, to reach 4,215 billion euros in 2007. (Source: assoimmobiliare association) Although the value of property has decreased along with other industrialised countries, the percentage fall has been far better than the 5 - 10% drop in other countries. The commercial and shop sector is continuing to do better than the residential sector. The south is also doing better than the north.
A number of incentives both from the EU and the Italian government are available for regional development and the government is focussing particularly on development of the traditionally less industrialised southern regions of the country known as the mezzogiorno, namely Calabria, Puglia, Basilicata and Sicily. A budget of $125 billion, resulting from a merging of national and economic funds, has been made available between 2007 to 2013 to encourage investment and growth in the south.
Subsidies available are in the form of grants, interest rate subsidies, tax credits, equity participation and state guarantees. Eligible areas include manufacturing, mining, power generation (particularly for ecological and renewable energy projects) and the agricultural and fishing industries.
The Italian government is committed to encouraging long term growth of the market and has made numerous reforms recently- These include changes in company and tax law and the e-government system to simplify the infamous Italian bureaucracy.
No comments:
Post a Comment