“Italy is exiting the crisis. The crisis has been deep but also confirmed the resilience of the economy,” said Italy’s Minister of Economy and Finance Pier Carlo Padoan on a Youtube video with the title “Beyond the clouds–Italy is back.”
Since coming to office in 2014, Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has introduced numerous structural reforms in the labor market, civil justice, taxation, and public administration.
As the economic climate is settling down in Italy, the government is now ambitious to boost foreign investments with its new motto: “Italy is back.”
The Italian Trade Agency (ITA) has recently kicked off “Invest in Italy” global roadshow in an effort to promote foreign investments and trade relations. As part of this roadshow, a meeting was held at Bloomberg headquarters in New York City on Jan. 11, 2016.
“Now is the right time with the right conditions to invest in Italy,” said then Deputy Minister of Economic Development Carlo Calenda at the meeting (on Jan. 20 he was appointed Italy’s ambassador to the EU). Calenda spoke to potential investors and local entrepreneurs in New York. He presented the measures and policies implemented by the Italian government to attract and sustain foreign investments.
Despite the fact that there is still a difficult road ahead, foreign investment represents a crucial element for the country’s growth, said Calenda.
In addition to initiating legislative reforms in a number of sectors, Italy has adopted a new governance model for attracting investment, including reforms to streamline and simplify the procedures required to start and operate a business in Italy.
Many economic indices show Italy is recovering from the economic crisis that hit Europe over the past few years. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 0.8 percent in 2015. The GDP growth has turned to positive for the first time since 2012, and the government expects 1.6 percent growth this year.
