Alberto Tripi, speaking on behalf of the executive board of the Federation, voiced the need to include a clear vision for the modernization of the country in the state Budget for 2008: “We do not need more resources, what we need is a consistent set of measures for innovation, to kick off a real program for change capable of delivering quality. Employers are ready to play their part by project finance funding state-of-the-art infrastructure, cutting-edge services for the public and businesses, solutions for improving bureaucracy and reducing public expenditure, but they want regulations that can assure a fair degree of certainty in relations with government and a competitive market subject to transparent and effective tendering and procurement systems”.

 

Naples, 12 October 2007 – “We cannot help voicing our deepest concerns about the 2008 Budget, which, although it does contain some interesting measures relating to corporate taxation, disappointingly falls short of providing measures, actions and resources for innovation. With such a large national debt and a bureaucracy in sore need of modernization, the least we could expect was targeted policies focusing on the new technological solutions for cutting and improving the quality of public expenditure, offering better services to the public and streamlining requirements for businesses”. This statement was made today by Alberto Tripi, the Chairman of Confindustria Servizi Innovativi e Tecnologici, the Innovatory and Technological Services branch of Confindustria, the Italian employers’ association, with respect to the position taken by the Federation’s executive board meeting in Naples, also to examine and discuss proposals for the forthcoming Budget debate.

 

“We have now run out of objective reasons – Mr. Tripi said – for further delaying the process that our competitor countries started implementing a long while ago, with a view to achieving e-Government, comprising high broadband coverage and household penetration, in line with the most advanced European countries, support to IT innovation, and abolishing tax penalties on the Tlc industry. These are the measures the Federation has proposed for introduction in the Budget for 2008, but for which, to date, it has been unable to secure a priority position. The need not to further burden the country’s finances should not translate into the scrapping of investments in improving the country’s future wealth creation prospects. We can achieve this on the one hand, by expanding public-private partnerships, especially through Project Financing, and on the other hand, by outsourcing and opening up the market of non-core public services; in this case, the State would continue to be responsible for the overall strategic management of the projects and for overseeing the processes, while the day-to-day operations would be conducted by the private sector according to performance-based remuneration schemes”. 

 

“We are prepared – Mr. Tripi continued – to fund infrastructure projects for the good of the country’s economy through project financing, with a view to introducing new networking technologies, implementing state-of-the-art services, providing efficient solutions for Government. We are not asking for money from the Government but a clear vision for the modernization of the country and transparent and effective regulations. Ensuring compliance with payment deadlines, which can be achieved simply by applying a provision set out in the 2005 Budget, for establishing a revolving fund fed by the resources allocated to the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (the postal savings and lending bank). Ensuring that the services market is certainly and effectively open to competition, without any protected niches in the public sector, according to transparent tendering and procurement systems with a limited number of competent contracting authorities”.

 

“This is the sense of the proposals the Federation intends to present as its contribution to the discussion on the State Budget – Alberto Tripi concluded – which, we trust, will be carefully assessed, in a balanced way, during the debate in Parliament"