Lombardy focuses on Zis as a new industrial policy

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Lombardy wants to confirm its role as a key player in the economy and Europe's leading manufacturing region now and in the future. In light of the fact that "it is important to remain so in the coming years", as stated by the Regional Councillor for Economic Development, Guido Guidesi, the Region has decided to adopt new instruments and initiatives in favour of the production and economic fabric.

The absolute novelty of the regional economic policy, on which the councillor is focusing, is that of the 'Innovation and Development Zones' (Zis) to give a boost and enhance the still unexpressed potential of Lombardy's production fabric. The idea is to support spontaneous aggregations of public and private entities - located in a given area - that share a well-defined productive and economic vocation. The aim is to foster a culture of innovation, strengthen knowledge flows between universities, research centres, companies and markets, strengthen the competitiveness of territories and build new development trajectories, but also to attract new investments.

"We do not want to adopt a uniform approach at institutional level, but to build targeted responses, calibrated to the specific needs of individual sectors - especially in a context in which economic contingencies evolve very rapidly. The SEZs fit precisely into this logic,' explains councillor Guidesi. At the basis will be a detailed mapping, which will make it possible to identify the players to be involved in each Zis, with the possibility of also including strategic players from outside the geographical area of reference. The establishment of the SEZs will be based on proposals from the territories, through a regional call for expressions of interest. The criteria will reward initiatives capable of activating public-private synergies, attracting talent and capital, promoting training and generating partnerships at local, national and international level. Each Zis will also be assessed in terms of economic and social impact, with the aim of building a model that can be replicated in other areas of the region. "In this way, as a region, we aim to consolidate what has been built so far: to remain a manufacturing land, capable of offering businesses an environment that is dynamic and favourable to growth. We want to continue creating the conditions so that doing business in Lombardy is, today more than ever, a convenient choice,' Guidesi specifies.

The Lombardy Region's roadshow aimed precisely at presenting the new SEZs, which from the last quarter of the year should constitute the main channel of dialogue not only between the economy and politics, but also between research, academia and finance, for the more than 800,000 active companies capable of generating an added value of 480.6 billion euros in the twelve Lombardy provinces. "In a difficult international context, characterised by great geopolitical uncertainties, Lombardy's manufacturing companies confirm stability, with improving production levels and an unemployment rate that in some provinces is stably below 3%. And yet, we are today confronted with some obstacles that test the system's resilience and competitiveness. The idea, then, is to radically change our approach: we are remapping the productive geography of our territory by identifying the production capitals of the most competitive sectors with the aim of building around these poles a new ecosystem capable of generating spontaneous aggregations of public and private entities. For our part, we will be ready to put in place, in addition to the economic measures that have already been activated and which to date, in various capacities, are close to 100 million euros, instruments designed and dedicated to each individual Innovation and Development Zone," emphasises Guidesi, who asks the territorial networks of entrepreneurial representation, the Chambers of Commerce, the universities, but also local politics to respond to the call in a proactive manner (for example, Varese is already working on aerospace, while Pavia is working on microelectronics, Brescia on steel, Bergamo on mechatronics and Crema on beauty).