Confindustria: maritime economy worth 216 billion, enhance infrastructure

A value of 216.7 billion euro, compared to 178.3 in 2024, of which 76.6 billion euro of direct impact, representing 11.3% of the national GDP, compared to 10.2% last year, with over 230 thousand companies and over a million employees. These are the figures of the Maritime Economy (processed by the Ossermare Tagliacarne - Unioncamere observatory), presented at the Confindustria conference on the sector, in Rome: the increase in the number of businesses over the two-year period 2022-2024 was +2 per cent, and for every euro invested in the Maritime Economy, an average of almost two is activated. In some sectors, such as shipbuilding, the multiplier value is much higher.

Confindustria, the only national employers' association to represent the entire sector, has recognised the key role of the Economy of the Sea for the country's development. And with an ad hoc delegation, entrusted to Mario Zanetti, and the work of the Economy of the Sea Technical Group, made up of representatives from the association and business worlds of the Confindustria system, as well as the institutional and academic worlds, Confindustria has identified a new industrial policy strategy based on three strategic drivers.

"Strengthening infrastructures and ports; modernising carriers and fleets; investing in people and their skills," explained Zanetti. These are three main axes that must be supported by three transversal levers: adequate financial resources, to encourage investment in the sector's energy and digital transitions; regulatory and administrative simplification, also through the implementation of new digital technologies; and communication, to facilitate the exchange of information, cooperation, and the creation of a national culture of competitiveness in the sector". It is necessary, according to Confindustria, to give more and more voice to the entire supply chain of this sector, which has been growing for years.

"The economy of the sea is growing, despite the geopolitical framework, but we need a single interlocutor at ministerial level," said Nello Musumeci, Minister for Civil Protection and Sea Policy, at the Confindustria conference on the sector. 'Without denying the difficulties of the geopolitical framework,' Musumeci added, 'I am convinced that we cannot but take note of a small miracle, the economy of the sea is growing visibly. And Italy is the first country for short-haul cargo handling'.