Rome – Italy needs 30 billion euros of investments over the next three years, Italian builders association ANCE chief Claudio De Albertis said Thursday.
“What we need now is a large-scale industrial and infrastructure development plan that can profoundly renew the country so it can overcome a decade-long delay,” De Albertis said at the group’s annual assembly.
De Albertis said the priorities are infrastructure maintenance, schools, flood and landslide safety, cultural heritage, and city outskirts. He said a national plan of at least five billion euros is needed for towns on the peripheries of Italy’s large cities, and compared it to the period of rebuilding that took place in Italy after WWII.
De Albertis called for a government moratorium on the requirement in the new tender code that mandates contracting authorities put forth only tenders based on a so-called executive plan, which in terms of engineering is the final plan for the project. He said that requirement will block construction projects based on the “integrated contract” system of the previous tender code.
Flavio Monosilio, director of ANCE’s research centre, said the construction sector purchases goods and services from 88% of Italy’s economic sectors, and thus is the country’s number one sector for activating the national economy.
He said an increase of one billion euros in construction demand generates 3.5 billion euros in the overall economy and creates 15,555 jobs – 5,600 of which are in sectors other than construction.
