Digital innovation makes GDP grow. This is why Confindustria digitale is launching yet another appeal to ask the government and political forces to "invest in the digital transformation of the country, doubling financial and human resources". And to achieve the goal, he asks to "accelerate with clear and authoritative digital governance, placing the direction in a permanent Department of the Prime Minister's office".
In short, the digital Agenda is not enough for Italy 4.0. Not that the country has stood still since its launch: there have been many initiatives since 2014 onwards. The point is that they are fragmented and cannot form a system. This is why a new push is needed and only Palazzo Chigi can give it, according to the industrialists. The requests of digital Confindustria – which it would like to see included in the next budget maneuver – were presented to Luiss by the new president Cesare Avenia together with data that make us think about the delays that Italy is accumulating. One above all: Italian public spending related to digital innovation arrives at 85 euros per citizen, in the face of 186 euro of France, 323 euro of'uk e 207 euro of Germany.
What emerges above all is the need – not only in this sector, actually – to improve the management of European funds: both due to insufficient planning compared to the available resources (3,1 billion for the seven-year period 2014-20) and due to the ability to complete projects. According to the data published by the OpenCoesione website (February 2019) have been presented 16.855 projects, but those already completed are only 13%, while projects in progress are 75% and those not started 12%. At a distance of 18 months from the end of 2020, there is finally the risk of "burning" almost 50% of the resources: for about 1 billion the planning is not yet known while another 700 million refer to projects that have not yet started.
Is there anything to worry about when you consider that – always based on an elaboration of Confindustria on Istat and Unioncamere data, in Italy between 2019 and 2021 the companies in the ICT sector alone (information and communication technologies) will need almost 45 technicians. A need that the market will hardly be able to satisfy. According to the latest edition of the "Digital Skills Observatory" (conducted by Anitec-Assinform, Aica, Assintel and Assinter Italia and recently published by Sole 24 Ore), the estimate of the need for the ICT sector rises to 62.359 workers, in the most conservative. The Observatory calculates that the most sought-after workers will be developers (49,1%), ICT consultants (16,3%), system analysts (7,5%) and digital media specialists (6,1%). Followed by specialists of big data, machine learning, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
