Some people want to invest (and a lot) in boating. There are the spaces, the projects, but everything remains stuck because of slow and cumbersome Italian-style bureaucracy.
Ferretti Group
has officially abandoned the public tender in the port of Taranto, Puglia, for the revitalization of the former Belleli area.
Ferretti is a billion-plus turnover giant, among the world’s top yacht and superyacht manufacturing groups with international brands such as Riva, Wally, Ferretti Yachts and Itama. 86 percent controlled by the Chinese holding company Weichai has its headquarters in Ravenna.
Thus skips an investment of about 200 million in public and private funds to revitalize the area.
The initial goal was announced about three years ago. The establishment of an industrial site for the construction of models and molds for the production of composite and carbon hulls, decks and superstructures as well as a research center for advanced materials.
Why Ferretti will not invest in Taranto
Ferretti Group drops investment plan of more than 62 million to which another 137 million in public funds would have been added for the port of Taranto. Ferretti’s part was about setting up and starting up the manufacturing operation. Substantial public contributions put forth by MISE, now the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, the Infrastructure Fund, the Apulia Region and the Port Authority were to be used to reclaim the area of the works.
Rising costs and indefinite timelines the reasons behind the withdrawal. Yet according to insiders’ reports, the support of institutions has never failed, indeed there has been great commitment. Where is the snag, then? The problem is seen in the fact that Taranto qualifies as a SIN area, a site of national interest, a place that needs special attention because it is heavily contaminated.
This role of special observer, with constraints and bureaucratic time stretching (beyond the usual), in this case has penalized it too much by giving little certainty to investors. This means stopped work and no revitalization for an environment that would probably have benefited more from the cleanup and the start of work than from the current situation.
What the Ferretti case in Taranto teaches
The impasse in this case is likely to cost dearly, not only in economic terms, but in practical terms. If investment, when it is there, is stopped by red tape, the risk of development paralysis is a bell that must ring loudly for it not to happen again.
“We have already recently asked the prefect,” says the president of Confindustria Taranto, Salvatore Toma . A table on development issues. Now, a few days after the installation of the Extraordinary Commissioner for Land Reclamation, Uricchio, and even more so in light of the Ferretti affair, we call for the opening of an urgent confrontation that will see us at the same table with the Ministry of the Environment and the other competent ministries to evaluate every action preparatory to the resolution of problems that will otherwise lead to the paralysis of the territory.”
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