The “Capital of Business Culture” for 2025 is Naples. It was chosen by Confindustria, which since 2019 has assigned the recognition to an Italian city to enhance local economies, inside and outside the confederal system. The news has produced confidence among Neapolitan entrepreneurs who have a new opportunity to show the country how much vitality there is in their system. Will they make it? The title of “Capital” represents an opportunity for growth, a showcase of know-how. And, beyond any allegory, Neapolitans are known for knowing how to get by, always. However, when it comes to industry, business and trade, one must be cautious. Who would have thought that Carlo Tavares CEO of the Stellantis plant in Pomigliano d'Arco would also be discharged?
The passing of the baton from Turin
Naples took over the role of “Capital” from Turin and established itself with the project “Rooted in the future”. The choice must have been well thought out also in view of exceeding the 130 events and 75 thousand participants of the Turin edition. The change of title has, therefore, its own charge of curiosity. In 2025, Naples, moreover, will celebrate the 2500th anniversary of the foundation of Neapolis and even in such a context one wonders what social and cultural identity the Neapolitan industry has. "Naples, with its metropolitan area, is a hub of manufacturing excellence and international-level supply chains. It has a strong identity, consolidated in many sectors of Made in Italy, with a background of business culture that has its roots in the past" said the president of the Unione Industriali Napoli, Costanzo Jannotti Pecci. For three years the city has been a destination for tourists from all over the world, “the inspiring muse of a very high quantity of cultural productions, local, Italian and international”. In everyday life, however, the city suffers from a chronic lack of services and infrastructures, necessary first of all for those who live there, let alone those who come to visit. Entrepreneurs know this and for this reason, if they have sought and won the title, they cannot make a bad impression.
A program to be discovered
How much impact will the Confindustria program have on employment, mobility, transport, environment, health? In each of these sectors there are imbalances and inequalities reported (often badly) every day by the media. In the city there are 80 thousand companies concentrated mainly in trade, professional services, and tourism. The vast majority have fewer than ten employees, but throughout the metropolitan area there are large companies in the automotive, manufacturing, aerospace, and maritime transport sectors. Between the Prefecture and Ministries there are dozens of open negotiating tables for companies short of orders or threatened by relocation. "We do not accept a future for Naples and Campania without factories, made up of forced emigration, welfare and inequality" says the secretary of the Cgil Nicholas Ricci. The attack on the government for the cut of 5 billion and 300 million euros of transfers to the whole of the South is clear, because Naples is the first city to be hit. The program of the Industrial Union is expected at real test of the actual ability to know how to set up a change for the part that is relevant to it under the gaze of the Italy of industry and of the "Nordic" capitals. Also to erase clichés and hilarious judgments on Neapolitanity.
It's the time of private capital
Then there is the nightmare of the escape of young people. According to the SVIMEZ in the next few years more than 100 thousand people will leave Naples to emigrate to the North or abroad. Who is putting up the money to stop the phenomenon? “What is missing is having a mass of private investments that can represent a driving force for continuity with respect to the PNRR, to create initiatives, value and increase the job offer. I believe that today the real strong theme is precisely that of the ability to attract private investment”, says the mayor Gaetano Manfredi. Yes, the Pnrr that has put the southern economy into fast gear and which will be discussed for a long time, to be remembered as an extraordinary subsidiary model. "Culture is business and business is culture" says Confindustria and the "Capitals" are chosen to offer a "vision of the future, proposing to involve and stimulate the entire community on these themes". Naples is ready to share the vision, also strong in its thousand-year history, as long as it is not limited to a single year but to a tangible perspective.
