Ligurian industry holds up, the infrastructure issue remains

The autumn recovery, after the summer break, for Ligurian companies opens with an air of moderate confidence in the future, in spite of the global geopolitical situation and even though quite a few infrastructural criticalities remain in the area.

This can be seen from the data collected by the economic survey of Confindustria Liguria (see article opposite) but also from the words of the president of the Ligurian association, Giovanni Mondini: 'Despite everything that has happened in recent years, i.e. pandemics, supply chain crises, wars, inflation and so on,' he explains, 'we can see that our industry is holding up, both in Italy and in Liguria. Lately we have recorded that the data in the area does not deviate from the national ones, indeed, sometimes it is better. In a difficult time, our GDP is similar to that of the entire Northwest and of Italy as a whole.

This, he continued, 'is particularly true for the manufacturing industry and is reflected in the employment figures, which are holding up and show a healthy situation, with permanent jobs and wages that are certainly not at a minimum. This is because the manufacturing economy is organised along production chains and, since the large companies are doing reasonably well, the entire world of small and medium-sized companies survives and holds up well, which, as we know, represents 95% of the Italian economy'.

We don't have much in the pharmaceutical and fashion sectors, but we are present in mechanics, means of transport and the food industry; in addition, we have a blue economy, with shipbuilding at the forefront, which is flying, as well as the defence sector, which is also at its peak, with a territorial coverage that goes from the East, where there are companies that report to Leonardo and the Muggiano shipyards (Fincantieri, ed.), for the construction of military ships, to the West, including Piaggio Aero, which, in the future, will be able to enter the defence sector more and more. In fact, as far as means of transport are concerned, in Liguria we build almost everything, excluding cars: ships, planes, even trains, with Alstom in Vado Ligure.

Mondini points out that, even at the meetings of Unindustria Savona and Confindustria La Spezia, held at the end of September, 'there was enthusiasm. Even though in Savona, on the very day of the meeting, companies in the Bormida Valley were flooded by water bombs, for the second time in the space of a few months. And here we come to one of Liguria's critical points. Because we often talk about the region's infrastructure deficit, especially from the point of view of roads, but we must remember that this is accompanied by a marked fragility of the territory'.