400 million euros to help the companies proceed quickly Noon on the path to innovation and sustainability. They are not a large amount, but they are useful. The announcement for innovation and sustainability took its first steps in southern industry. In truth, we've been talking about it for six months.
The small and medium-sized businesses that will benefit from the 25% money, the other day a few almost blocked the application desk. There are those who have told of a very excited click day before the Ministry of Business office closed its doors.
After announcements at dozens of conferences, the decree on was finally released in August Industry 4.0 for Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia. What type of projects are allowed? Those that refer to the "Research, Innovation and Competitiveness for the green and digital transition" program with ERDF funds 2021-2027. Everything will close within four years at most.
Money helps businesses by recognizing the 75% of eligible expenses for each project that includes 4.0 technologies - Internet, Big Data Robotics, Cybersecurity - as long as they lead to an increase in production capacity, the diversification of production or the creation of new products. But that is not all. Innovation must go hand in hand with environmental sustainability, which allows you to obtain rewards, or an additional score in the final ranking.
We must be respectful of the environment and a good use of resources so that the circular economy grows in the South too, is the refrain of the government. Well, let's wait.
A package that does not bridge the North-South gap
The Minister of Enterprises of the entire package Adolfo Urso he made it a flag of the entire center-right, seeking the consensus of unions and entrepreneurs. The program should integrate with the projects included in the six PNRR Missions that concern the South. But it's a plan that will come.
In the South, after a year of Meloni's government, too little is still thought of. The small and medium-sized businesses that have applied for 4.0 projects will have to grow in organization and size. Most of them are family-run businesses in which technological innovation is environmental impacts of the activities have not been a priority so far.
The GDP of the southern regions between 1996 and 2019 accumulated a gap of 17 points. Correlating the availability of public resources to reality to make it grow seriously is the main effort that the government must make, say entrepreneurs and unions. According to Confcommercio, three macro factors remain that indicate the North-South divide: labor productivity, employment rate, demographic issue.
The last indicator is particularly serious because if in the North the population grew by 9,3% in the South it decreased by 2%. The army of young people on the run that should give substance to public aid is unstoppable. The first consequence of the phenomenon is that "the percentage weight of the wealth produced in the South on the total of our country has gone from 24 to 22%.” The second is that the aspiration for progress cannot be cancelled, but without an army it is difficult to achieve it.
