Long Life to Technological Innovation and Digitization!

by Fabrizio Scovenna, President of ANIE Automazione

After the emphasis placed by our Premier, Giuseppe Conte, on the strategic importance for our country to invest in technology and turn into reality the potential benefits of digitization, robotization, innovation and artificial intelligence, something has changed.
The Ministry for Technological Innovation and Digitization was set up with the mandate to close or at least reduce the gap created between us and the rest of Europe and, in a recent interview, the Minister for Economic Development, Stefano Patuanelli, after confirming the main allocations of the Impresa 4.0 plan, specified the essential terms and the transition from the “iper/superammortamento” instrument to a tax credit.
Very positive signs, which would seem to testify to the firm will to get out of the technological backwardness that is severely penalizing our country, as shown by the most recent studies conducted by agencies and specialized companies. The European Commission’s DESI (Digital Economy & Society Index) 2019 ranks Italy 24th among the 28 EU countries, as does the Global Attractiveness Index, drawn up annually by The European House Ambrosetti and considered a thermometer of a country’s level of attractiveness. Despite its medium-high potential for attraction, Italy has been standing for a couple of years in 16th place among the 144 listed in the ranking and identifies the “digital divide” as one of the main causes.
Beyond the individual government initiatives that, as we have seen in the last three years, represent a real driver for companies, the attribution of a broader scope to these projects, so strategic for the country, could indicate a desire, absolutely new, to place them at the centre of a plan that finds consistency in a collective commitment and “super partes”.
A new perspective that, in addition to instilling the whole industrial and not industrial world with a good and necessary dose of confidence, would strengthen the image of a country system that, as such, moves in a homogeneous way. This sharing of intent, associated with continuity, could represent that element of strength that is indispensable to get out of stagnation, climb the famous indexes and, therefore, translate our best competitive position into a business vector that also acts as an incentive to never stop innovating.