Xinhua, Rome :
Italian Minister of Finance Pier Carlo Padoan this week said he would ask the European Union for 10 billion euros (1.25 billion U.S. dollars) to fund 1,000 investment projects in Italy in a move Padoan said “would help turn the Italian economy around.”
But experts are split on whether the strategy will yield concrete results or are a kind of public relations gesture.
Italy’s economy has been mired in recession off and on for the last decade, with growth trailing the European Union’s overall growth rate in 12 of the last 14 years. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi took power in February with promises to pass an ambitious agenda of reforms and restart growth.
So far, Renzi has passed some changes in tax laws and reformed states of the labor laws and has promised deeper reforms in the future. But unemployment remains high and economic growth is still anemic.
Padoan proposal to the EU hopes to help reverse that. The projects include a plan to upgrade Internet infrastructure, particularly in the poorer southern regions, fund a high-speed train link between the southern cities of Bari and Naples, create incentives to make buildings more energy efficient, and giving some new economic advantages to small and medium-sized companies.
“These ideas are good, focusing on areas of need,” ABS Securities political affairs analyst Andrea Milanese said in an interview. “But it’s kind of a wish list. Some ideas may get implemented, sure, but I think a large part is to show Italians the government is working for them. A large part is a public relations job.”
That is a view taken by some Italian media, but Federico Castorina, from the think tank Cultura Democratica, disagreed, calling Padoan’s move “the most useful kind of problem solving.”
Castorina told Xinhua that the projects were likely to be funded and that they were, for the most part, focused on where they can make the biggest impact.
Italian Minister of Finance Pier Carlo Padoan this week said he would ask the European Union for 10 billion euros (1.25 billion U.S. dollars) to fund 1,000 investment projects in Italy in a move Padoan said “would help turn the Italian economy around.”
But experts are split on whether the strategy will yield concrete results or are a kind of public relations gesture.
Italy’s economy has been mired in recession off and on for the last decade, with growth trailing the European Union’s overall growth rate in 12 of the last 14 years. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi took power in February with promises to pass an ambitious agenda of reforms and restart growth.
So far, Renzi has passed some changes in tax laws and reformed states of the labor laws and has promised deeper reforms in the future. But unemployment remains high and economic growth is still anemic.
Padoan proposal to the EU hopes to help reverse that. The projects include a plan to upgrade Internet infrastructure, particularly in the poorer southern regions, fund a high-speed train link between the southern cities of Bari and Naples, create incentives to make buildings more energy efficient, and giving some new economic advantages to small and medium-sized companies.
“These ideas are good, focusing on areas of need,” ABS Securities political affairs analyst Andrea Milanese said in an interview. “But it’s kind of a wish list. Some ideas may get implemented, sure, but I think a large part is to show Italians the government is working for them. A large part is a public relations job.”
That is a view taken by some Italian media, but Federico Castorina, from the think tank Cultura Democratica, disagreed, calling Padoan’s move “the most useful kind of problem solving.”
Castorina told Xinhua that the projects were likely to be funded and that they were, for the most part, focused on where they can make the biggest impact.
