Natale Mazzuca: 'Decontribution of the South is essential to give more impetus to growth'

As Confindustria we want to contribute to the construction of the new measure. The new facilities for hiring disadvantaged people do not compensate for the loss of a relevant instrument such as Decontribuzione Sud. To get an idea of the impact of this measure: last year it affected 3 million workers, two out of three on permanent contracts, with half of the subsidised hirings in companies with more than 15 employees. For the future, an equally ambitious intervention is needed to attenuate the gaps and not selective, since it will have to cover the entire southern production apparatus. It will also have to avoid overlapping with the tax credit on ZES investments, a risk that we glimpse between the folds of the regulatory wording contained in the manoeuvre. The five years envisaged in the regulation establishing it facilitate medium-term choices and are therefore a positive decision. The new intervention should be configured as an easy-to-use measure that can be combined with other incentives and is also linked to the labour component and the necessary upgrading of skills.

On the ZES tax credit there has been a refinancing: is this sufficient?

It is positive to have earmarked 1.6 billion for 2025, just as the provision for the possible involvement of European cohesion funds to increase their endowment goes in the right direction. But to give businesses greater certainty for their investment choices, a medium-term time horizon is needed.

In July, applications arrived from companies for the ZES tax credit for over 9 billion investments. A sign of a South that is reacting?

A sign of vitality, certainly. Since the pandemic, the Mezzogiorno has shown not indifferent positive signs: a GDP growth rate higher than the rest of the country, i.e. 3.7 cumulative points since 2019, against the 3.3 of the Centre-North; exports are growing strongly, with 13 points more since 2019, 4 more than the rest of Italy; employment has increased by more than 3 percentage points, despite the migration phenomena. While these trends should be assessed with caution, as the Governor of the Bank of Italy recently said, they are nonetheless a sign of the competitive capacity and development potential of southern Italy that must be unleashed and strengthened. A targeted strategy, resting on two legs, is needed.

What should it be based on? .

On the one hand, an action that starts from existing excellence and builds diversified and structured supply chains around it. A process that must be accompanied by incisive support measures such as the ZES tax credit and by adequate infrastructure investments, first and foremost those financed by the NRP. On the other hand, support is needed for the resilience of the economic and social fabric, not in a welfarist logic but to maintain the productive capacity of the South and not to disperse its development potential.

Two legs, each with its own supporting strategy?

Yes, the Strategic Plan on the SEZ, the tax credit, the new cohesion policy, and the measures to favour productive settlements linked to strategic supply chains are part of that package of interventions to spread and strengthen a widespread entrepreneurial fabric. On the other hand, Decontribution South was the main measure on which the second leg rests and will have to lead to an intervention that is just as effective in mitigating competitiveness gaps and just as simple in the way it can be used by businesses. It will have to be agreed with Europe, so we hope that those negotiations will be concluded as soon as possible, with a positive outcome.