What actions to develop to give concrete support to the internationalization strategies of our companies? What infrastructure does our country really need to recover points of competitiveness? How to effectively communicate the "Italian brand", especially in economies with the highest growth potential? If in the period of the Italian economic boom of the 50s and 70s, the idea of development was essentially linked to investments in large public works such as roads, highways, railways, which were used for the production and distribution of mass capital goods, today these infrastructures ' heavy' are no longer enough.
In an increasingly global and capital intensive economy, the Italian manufacturing system, in order to be truly competitive, needs service infrastructures that allow companies to relate effectively with the new paradigms of modernity made up of rapid circulation of people, goods, information, ideas and meanings. Service networks to enhance our marketing capabilities, controls on the distribution processes that govern access to outlet markets, logistics platforms that allow our country to establish direct and rapid connections with global demand and with the new needs of the high-end of consumers on whom the Italian brand still has an appealing capacity.
But what infrastructure are we talking about? Let's think of the Web, finance for exports, professional networks for internationalization, air routes, innovative distribution and communication formats.
In this perspective, it becomes urgent to shift the center of gravity of the debate from investments in concrete to strategic marketing platforms, which make it possible to enhance the strengths of Made in Italy.
In the meantime, we need to get across the idea that we are dealing with real infrastructures (even if they are intangible) given that they allow for the optimal allocation of capital in the relationship between the cost of the infrastructure and the impact on GDP. Just think of the case of air routes. According to a Bank of Italy analysis, the activation of a route has a multiplier effect on the GDP of a territory which is equal to 70/80 times (increase in property value, tourist flows, etc.) compared to the loan quota allocated.
The distinctive features of these infrastructures are the flexibility in implementation (modularity and fast payback) and the ability to activate entire supply chains that need to increase their competitive appeal on global markets. From this point of view, the (partial or total) immateriality of the infrastructure cannot constitute a limit in itself. To change the "rooted custom" of considering only "hard" infrastructures eligible (which have tangible physical elements and economic return mechanisms associated with the tariff) it is necessary above all to change the current practices of economic evaluation of infrastructures which are essentially based on the mechanism of rate/cost.
The proposal is to evaluate the infrastructures on the basis of their ability to activate the GDP and above all to measure the additional tax revenue that is generated in relation to this expansion of the gross domestic product. All this to measure the ability to repayments of the investment and the share of the necessary public contribution.
Moreover, it could also be proposed at the European level to adopt this approach in measuring the effectiveness of investments in infrastructure, above all in view of the activation of project bonds for the relaunch of the economy. There activation modularity of a light infrastructure would also make it possible to activate a first tranche of financing to create an experimental "module" of the infrastructure itself, around which to then activate tools for measuring the induced effects on GDP (thus providing greater guarantees of results when the large-scale planning).
The definition of new indicators that make it possible to make the elements of economic value creation linked to these infrastructures measurable and tangible would make it possible to create elements of consensus necessary to mobilize capital and define Policies.
