Orsini: 'Avoid that the manoeuvre is an assault on diligence, OK for three-year 8 billion investment plan'

"On the eve of the manoeuvre, what is most important to us is to avoid an assault on the diligence and work with the government on a three-year plan worth 8 billion a year to support investments, starting with those in innovation and digitalisation, with stable incentives, extending the bureaucratic simplifications of the single Zes to the whole of Italy". These are the words of Confindustria president Emanuele Orsini commenting on the agreement between Confindustria and Cdp to support the growth of Italian companies.

"It is necessary to support," Orsini added, "capitalisation and reduce the tax burden on companies, we need to confirm and strengthen the Guarantee Fund for SMEs, and provide for measures to activate the savings of families and institutional investors for the benefit of our economy. On the agreement signed at Luiss Orsini explained: 'This agreement is a strategic choice: joining forces to give Italy solid and lasting growth based on industry. We are working on new credit and finance instruments focusing on innovation, technologies, investments, supply chains, sustainable living solutions and young people. The productivity of manufacturing, the country's locomotive, is back in decline after a phase of sustained growth: in 2023 it recorded -2.4%, a sign that calls for a turnaround in incentives for growth and investments".

"The productivity of manufacturing, the country's locomotive, is falling back," warned the president of Confindustria.

We need 'an industrial plan for the country, a European plan and an Italian plan,' he stressed. We need 'something that has a duration of at least three years, otherwise we will only have zero growth, instead we have to grow at 1.5 - 2 %. The first slide for me is dramatic. When we see that the productivity of this country has plummeted, the first question we have to ask ourselves is: how do we get that productivity to increase?" said the leader of the industrialists, referring to the scenario outlined by the director of Confindustria's study centre, Alessandro Fontana, during the meeting at Luiss to present the agreement between Confindustria and Cdp.

"What becomes significant for our country is how much capacity there is to increase productivity. This is fundamental. But in order to do this we need the conditions,' said the president of Confindustria: 'It is obvious that we cannot do it alone, so we need to implement all the things we need. The real issue today is to understand the priorities in order to make this country grow as fast as possible'. And 'we must stop talking about projects that have a short-term vision', we need projects such as the 'house plan' which 'is the longest-term project of all'. We need 'a long-term country project'.