The Territories Focus analyses the main strengths and weaknesses of the economy of the North-East of Italy. It is an important area for the countrywhich produces almost a quarter of the national GDP, generates a third of Italian exports and represents about a fifth of the population of Italy.
Export engine and pillar of national industry, the North-East faced the crisis with greater resilience than other areas of the country leveraging a dynamic entrepreneurial fabric and a significant capacity to respond to external shocks. Today, in order to continue to compete, new challenges present themselves for the North-East development model aimed at strengthening the presence of its companies in the most dynamic world markets. In order to tackle them, it is essential to encourage new forms of innovation, based not only on the modernisation of the means of production, but also on changes in production, management and organisational processes, managerial aspects and the quality and training of the workforce, so as to create an ecosystem capable of keeping pace with the great changes that are affecting world markets. More competitive companies will thus be able, in part due to new and higher levels of technological development, to create job opportunities for the most talented young people by making the territory more attractive in a virtuous circle of continuous evolution and development.