The new Covid Relief Decree, published on the Gazzetta Ufficiale this past 22 March, has in fact extended the amount of relief being provided by the State, with the real risk of an invasive state presence in the economy of the country: on this possibility, the Minister for Economic Development, Giancarlo Giorgetti, was asked for an explanation by editor-in-chief of Sole 24 Ore, Fabio Tamburini, during the webinar ‘Reshape the world’ organised on 24 March. Minister Giorgetti explained that although this risk exists, the action of the Government must be contextualized and viewed in light of the particular historical moment we are all experiencing.

When faced with an unexpected and extremely serious event, like the outbreak of the pandemic, confirmed the Minister, the market cannot stand on its own: the aim of the decree accordingly becomes that of creating a ‘bridge’, which will provide support in particular to SMEs in guiding them through and beyond the pandemic. Italy, the Minster underlined – cannot allow itself to suffocate businesses because of financial questions and issues, which would result in the loss of a precious productive and entrepreneurial resource.  Symbolic in this sense is the case of Corneliani, a business from Mantua in the textile industry, which represents one of the crowning glories of Made in Italy, and which over the years, had fallen into great economic difficulties, where it risked going into liquidation.

After ten months of standstill and problems, a turning point arrived that would in fact save the historic and prestigious brand created in 1930, thanks to the creation of a NewCo by the Bahrein Investcorp investment firm (the majority shareholder of the company) and Invitalia, the National Agency for Inward Investment and Economic Development owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy, for a total investment of 17 million euros. “Now, more than ever before – confirmed the Minister in merit – we need entrepreneurs, people who believe in an entrepreneurial project, otherwise for our country there is no future.

Once we have overcome this phase of the crisis – he continued – I am sure that there will still be a market for beautiful things”. Even on the theme of vaccines that is more critical than ever before, the Minister emphasised the excellence of our country in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry, an excellence that Italians themselves do not always recognize or appreciate sufficiently. However, the aim now is that of constructing an Italian productive supply chain and the State, also on this issue, must be a promoter of economic development. The idea is to already have national production up and running by the fall.