The change at the top of the CDP seems destined to end quickly. The banking foundations which hold 18,4% of the Cassa's capital, have asked for explanations and guarantees but do not seem willing to come to a head-on confrontation with the Government. However, Renzi and Padoan have yet to clarify, unequivocally, what role they want to assign to the Cassa which in recent years with Bassanini and Gorno Tempini has become very open to market practices and to the support of Italian companies. Of course, more can be done, but the birth of a new public bandwagon full of decaying companies or non-performing loans must be avoided.
A partial explanation of the reasons for the Cassa's turnaround came yesterday during a conference on the internationalization of the Italian economy organized by the Masi Foundation and which was attended, among others, by the Deputy Minister for Economic Development Carlo Calenda, the general manager of the Bank of Italy Salvatore Rossi, and the adviser to the Prime Minister Marco Simoni.
From Calenda's words it became clear that one of the reasons, and perhaps the main one, for the anticipated replacement of the top management of the Cassa lies in the failure to implement that export bank through the reform of Sace and Simest. According to Calenda, in order to enable Italian companies to take full advantage of the favorable conditions of the international markets, it is essential that Italy equips itself with an instrument similar to that existing in other countries which it can support with guarantees, loans at convenient rates, or contributions of capital, the presence of Italian companies in the world. We have over 100 companies that we could lead to have a greater presence on international markets, but we can't waste any more time to do so. We have been discussing it for over two years, now the time has come for it to be implemented.
Salvatore Rossi said he was in favor of rationalizing all existing tools to support exports, but wanted to underline the need to look carefully at the profound changes (almost a permanent revolution) that are taking place on the world stage, to avoid intervening only on tools that were adequate to the conditions of a few decades ago. In other words for Rossi, today's problem is not just that of exports, but that of integrating Italian industry into international value chains. And to do this it is necessary that our companies know how to keep up with technological innovation and with the organizational changes required by the need to overcome the increasingly fierce international competition. And therefore the so-called "country system" which must change in order to position itself successfully in the new world scenario. And there are examples where this has succeeded. Rossi mentioned the supply chain of automotive components which, no longer able to live solely with Fiat, have restructured and successfully tackled the world market. In particular, Rossi cited not only the inefficiencies of Justice, but the entire Italian legal system which "is uncomfortable in modern society". There is therefore a huge task for politicians and jurists: that of changing Italian law, not only to speed up civil justice, but precisely to make the legal framework suitable for the needs of modern businesses.
Also Marco Simoni he insisted on the need to equip ourselves with an export bank capable of giving greater support to businesses. We export more or less like France but our credit and guarantee support is ten times less. We therefore have a large space to cover. The goal is to reach an export value equal to 50% of GDP while today, despite the successes of recent years, we are still around 35%.
Despite the current top management of the Cassa, we have done an excellent job in recent years, the Government has chosen the path of a traumatic change to underline the urgency of forging ahead in renewing the support tools for our businesses which need to be helped to face the world markets. It's a reckless choice. Results are expected soon.
