Saturday, June 03, 2006

A Look at Italy on it's Republic Day Anniverary -60 Years

 

The ANNOTICO Report

 

The Italian Republic came into being on June 2, 1946, when a national referendum decided to switch from the previous monarchy and become a republic.

 

 

Italy Continues Development With Rich and Long History

The following is contributed by the Italian Embassy in Seoul on the occasion of the country's National Day. _ ED.

It is always difficult to find a slogan or a single sentence that can fully describe the character of a given country. This is all the more true for Italy. For tens of centuries, the Italian Peninsula has always been the playground of an extraordinary set of different cultures, states, economic achievements and regional traditions.

A foreigner who travels through Italy will experience different landscapes and changing climates: from the amazing white slopes and valleys of the Alps and the central "Appennini" range, through the enchanting beaches and blue sea of the Mediterranean South.

The traveler will be surrounded _ at the same time and in the same city _ by contemporary and ancient buildings, such as the new avant-garde Show-House for the imperial Roman Ara Pacis recently built in the center of Rome.

The traveler will enjoy the beauties of large, dynamic cities such as Turin, Milan, Rome and Naples and at the same time will fall in love with dozens of middle-size or small cities proud of their rich and long history.

Every spot he or she will look, will reveal insights of a colorful and powerful reality that never stops living, working and changing. Italy is mostly known all-over the world for its passion for life and beauty, its "dolce vita" its art achievements and its culture.

Italy Moving to New Fields

But the truth of this country is that it has always strived to explore new fields of activity and bring them to their best performance. Let's take the example of a famous city, like Pisa in Tuscany. Its historic center with the steep tower, dating back to the 12th century, never stops enchanting the tourist.

In the same city, though, old and new traditions live together. Nobel Prize graduates, like Rubbia in Physics, used to teach at Pisa's universities, which today host some of the most advanced laboratories and research centers in the world in the field of robotics and medicine.

This is the very same city where four centuries ago Galileo started his experiments that paved the way for modern science and that is surrounded by high-tech industrial clusters in the mechanical and motorcycle sector.

As you may see, thus, it is difficult to synthesize and present in a few words a country like Italy. Host for centuries to ancient civilizations and cultures, such as the Etruscans, the Roman Empire and Christianity, paving the way to modern thinking and science starting with the Renaissance period, Italy is today the sixth economy among OECD members, the fourth in the EU and the seventh in the world.

Balanced Economy

Its economy is well balanced between the manufacturing sector (almost 28 percent of GDP) and services (70 percent). The Italian economic landscape is characterized by thousands of dynamic small- and medium-sized enterprises but also by large firms well ahead in some key technological sectors.

This is the case of the Finmeccanica Group in the fields of aviation, aerospace, weapons, transport; Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Piaggio in the automotive sector; Techint and Danieli in the field of equipment and technologies for the steel industry; Eni and Enel in energy and petrochemicals; and ST Microelectronics in the chip industry, just to name a few.

The share of the services sector in the GDP is increasing as in all major and most advanced economies in the world. Italy has one of the largest and most developed telecommunication markets in Europe (the per capita ratio of mobile phones is one of the highest, thus permitting the Italian firm TIM to be one of the biggest in this sector in the EU) and is investing heavily (seven billion euros) in transport infrastructures, especially in port and railway facilities devised to connect the peninsula with Europe's and the Mediterranean's major hubs.

Needless to say, how well developed are the tourism, leisure, entertainment and gastronomy industries.

Italian Reforms

In the last few years, the Italian government has undertaken reforms to enhance assets and productivity that needed stimulation. Since the 1990s the banking sector went through a process of concentration and increase in the average dimension of credit companies.

The intervention of the public sector in the economy has been widely reduced through a long series of privatizations and liberalizations that have enhanced competition and further opened many key markets.

Fiscal reforms have been designed to help firms and consumers increase investments and consumption and have led to a lowering of both the corporate and the direct tax.

Furthermore, Italy has a wide network of agreements against double taxation with all major trading partners in the world, including Korea.

Since 2004, a new corporate law, which dramatically improved rules for company start-ups, organization and administration, is in force. This reform has brought Italian corporate law in line with that of most other advanced countries, introducing simplification and greater flexibility for companies' decision-making and investments.

In the last few years, Italy updated its labor legislation in order to allow for more options, flexibility in the management of human resources and labor, and the selection of professional skills.

To achieve this end, more options in the labor market have been introduced such as "lease" job contracts, greater room for part-time and job-sharing among workers, freelance collaborations with companies for specific projects, and so on.

Thanks to these reforms and the investments made in education and the acquisition of professional skills, the unemployment rate has diminished significantly. The government, furthermore, and in compliance with EU rules, has streamlined a wide-range of incentives and support schemes in order to help business start-ups and investments, especially in the southern regions.

Turning now to non-economic issues, it is worth mentioning some reforms that have recently modernized both the school and the university education systems.

These reforms have been conceived to give better education and professional qualifications to the young, to improve the performance of S&T research and stimulate cooperation among universities and firms.

Finally, the interaction between citizens and the public administration is being made smoother and quicker; major innovations are gradually being introduced to develop a full e-government system and to make it more "user-friendly" for everybody.

The Italian economy has begun reaping the effects of these reforms: Manufacturing output in the first months of 2006 has experienced a sharp increase and the prospects for economic growth are bright.

Scientific, Technological Researches

A full and complete picture of contemporary Italy cannot omit the engagement of Italian researchers to foster scientific and technological discoveries. The excellence in the science field has roots in the enormous development of fundamental science carried out since the 16th century.

This development allowed _ through continuous efforts _ achievement of worldwide, well-recognized contributions of scientists like Natta in chemistry, Marconi, Fermi and Rubbia in physics, Levi Montalcini in medicine, all among others, Nobel prize graduates.

Creativity and a well-established network of universities and research centres is the key of Italian success in the field of science and technology.

Science, at the highest level, requires not only well equipped laboratories, but also a large ability to overcome the barriers of common knowledge with new and revolutionary interpretations of results and observations.

It is typical of the nature of Italians to put in the basket of scientific knowledge both intelligence and fantasy. At present, Italy is considered among the most advanced countries in several S&T fields.

We can be reminded of some of them: fundamental science (physics, chemistry, materials), health and vaccines, aerospace, mechanics (both in the field of car design and in the field of industrial machinery devoted to almost any kind of advanced production process), renewable and new energies (mainly solar thermodynamics and hydrogen, as energy vector and related technologies) and so on.

The reader will now have a brief outline of Italy and its life, but will still be a long way in appreciating and exploiting the potential and richness of this country.

The best way is to visit Italy _ as a tourist in its beautiful cities, museums and landscapes; as a businessman in its trade fairs; as a student at its universities; or as a scientist in its research centres. All this and more you will find in this fascinating country.

06-01-2006

 

 

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