The ninth report on Society and Economy, edited by Fondazione NordEst’s Scientific Director Mr. Daniele Marini and Secretary for Research Mrs. Silvia Oliva, was presented on 14 July 2008.

The president of Fondazione NordEst Mr. Andrea Tomat and the president of Veneto Banca Mr. Franco Antiga opened the meeting with their opening speeches: Mr. Tomat's audio speech; Mr. Antiga's audio speech

Mrs. Emma Marcegaglia, president of Confindustria, gave a speech too – listen to the audio speech.

The report highlighted that – despite stereotypes that are often based on not very exhaustive conventions – the North East of Italy is now an area that shrinks from established categories and is going through a process of gradual adaptation, in order to give a new, innovative interpretation to its own traditional elements.

This is what emerged from the ninth Report on Society and Economy edited by the Fondazione NordEst in 2008, which was presented in Mestre (Venice).

The survey underlined the multiplicity of aspects of which the North East is composed, associating the prefix “multi” with different contexts.

Multi-cultural: for the increasing presence of immigrants;

Multi-generational: for many generations live together, among population and in enterprises;

Multi-sectoral: for the coexistence of production chains and corporate networks and the increasing mixture of industry and services;

Multi-territorial: for the enterprises the North East are both concentrated on their territory of origin, and oriented to other markets;

A “multi-North East” that adopted a prevailing direction: a higher quality system.

The common denominator of the North East, over this background of multiple aspects, is the hard-working attitude, being work a priority value.

However, this is an aspect that goes together with the progressive slowdown in the territory’s economic growth.

As a matter of fact, the GDP will probably remain fixed at 1%, while a few years ago it varied between 2 and 4%.
This economic stagnation, however, hides considerable alterations, both in positive and negative terms.
Moreover, if we consider the variation between 1995 and 2005 in terms of per capita GDP on equal terms of purchasing power, it emerges that distances with the European regions that surpassed the North East even in 1995 appreciably widened. The result is that the North East of Italy was the European area that lost the highest number of positions compared to the average of the EU at 27, during the period 2000-2005.

Anyway, the North East keeps being a testing area from different points of view: in recent times, it anticipated production relocation phenomena, and even now it still maintains a strong inclination towards the relationships with foreign markets, which constitute the real “flywheel” for the shift and steadiness of economic development.

Another aspects emerging from the survey is its acquisitive, fulfillment-oriented nature, which keeps marking the North East and well-off societies generally speaking.

In fact, the indicators of relative poverty constantly place this area much below the national average.

Indeed, if the incidence of poverty in Italy keeps being firm at the 11% of families, in the North East it stops at 5% in Veneto, 5.3% in Trento, 7.1% in Bolzano and 8.2% in Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Furthermore, during the recent economic period, the amount of families suffering from economic difficulties didn’t increase: this is a signal that there are persistent opportunities of employment, and a welfare network able to stand the difficult situations that can however occur.

The North East confirms its open system, crossed by a flow of phenomena that contribute to internationalization of enterprises and ability to export products and services.

In 2007, in particular, export marked a 4.7% increase compared to 2006; import, on the other hand, remained steady at +6.1%.

The services sector grew despite the fact that the economy of production – even traditional one – persists.
The latter, however, is not an homogeneous exemplar, and it is undergoing radical shift processes on different aspects (work management, internationalization and so on).

The same happens in the case of industrial clusters: their economic performance once was essentially homogeneous within them, while nowadays companies sharing the same territory, sector, size or product range mark dissimilar results.

Moreover, the reorganization processes of companies foment the outsourcing: as a consequence, factories still exist with the prevailing presence of external professionals.

Face to face with these aspects, we must highlight the ambivalent nature of social and economic phenomena that the North East is undergoing, and that impose more and more flexible solutions and recipes.

Indeed, future perspectives for this area also depend on dynamics external to it.

After all, Italy became a geo-economic platform with every right after 1 May 2004, as for the processes of integration and exchange in relation to the new, enlarged Europe. As a proof of having reached such a goal, we have to look at those economic operators, even foreign ones, who focus on North East: from trade fairs through logistics and credit institutions.

Finally, the Veneto, Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions – also considering that Emilia-Romagna and Marche could add their commercial interests – potentially constitute an important hub for the construction of the new enlarged Europe. This will be possible especially in case the North East should extend towards North and East thanks to the High Adriatic Euroregion along with Carinthia, some provinces of Slovenia and of the Istrian and the Primorsko-Goranska Counties in Croatia, which are already entities of economic, historical and cultural importance.

Consult the slides of the presentation by Daniele Marini and Michela Oliva.

Consult the speech by Daniele Marini and Michela Oliva (audio)

Consult the summary of North East Report 2008 (Italian)