http://destinazioneitalia.gov.it/english/
DESTINAZIONE ITALIA: THE LIVING DOCUMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT
In this way the project was defined by the Government during the first presentation in Rome last September 19th. The text introduced is a draft version due to become a definitive one by the end of the four weeks of online public consultation started to gather up proposals and considerations from public and private economic entities.
There are fifty regulatory interventions expected to be adopted in a short time for the implementation of the project and to pursuit the revival of the Italian economy and the competitiveness of domestic enterprises, attracting foreign direct investments.
In this way they mean to point out the work of the Government in recent months to the entire world: among the above measures, some are already in act and incorporated into the expected set of rules.
Each act, mission and proposal is the result of a cooperation between different ministries and administrative offices. Investitalia and the new institution in connection with foreign countries, the new Destination Italy SpA, should lead the whole activity. It is a way to solve problems in which our Country is falling and to make the whole investment life-cycle easier.
The list starts introducing measures directed to ensure certainty in the timing for obtaining authorizations:
- the concentration of the procedural steps in a single meeting through the Services Conference, available online too;
- adopting standard and uniform procedures on the national territory;
- execution of the italian SUAP (the One Stop Shop for Productive Activities- OSS) by January to facilitate relations between the economic entities and Public Administration.
In terms of fiscal certainty, two more measures are provided: tax agreements to plan investments and the establishment of a DESK serving businesses at the Italy’s Revenue Agency. The aforementioned tax agreements are encouraged to allow pre-emptive fiscal arrangements in relation to a fixed period as well as to facilitate a better governance in managing the company’s taxation.
Because of Italy is a country mainly characterized of small and medium entrepreneurs, the project intend to pursue the current policy of promotion of SMEs and increasing the number of innovative start-ups, a project started in 2012 (measure 21). The goal is achieving foreign direct investment also in the field of micro-enterprises. According to this purpose it is provided the institution of the fund "Invest in Made in Italy". Furthermore, there is a need to make companies less dependent on bank credit and to raise capital for SMEs it is provided a liberalization of bonds issued by unlisted companies (5 billion of new finance resources).
Wishing an economic upturn in the Italian stock market (measure 19) the Government intends to facilitate access to regulated markets, including tax benefits to companies listing by capital increase. A dispense with the tax on capital gains for those who invest in companies with small capitalization (so-called Small Caps ) for a period of 3/5 years is provided to make investments in listed companies more attractive. The project would like to make easier the access to the indirect quotation though the establishment of SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Companies). Today in Italy there are only three special SPAC listed on the AIM market (Alternative Investment Market), a suitable place for the intersection of demand and supply of capital for SMEs.
The development of REITs (real estate companies listed investment) is wished to increase the number of the investment in the Italy’s real estate, rendering uniform the tax regulation affecting these companies with the one of real estate funds so as to reduce the discrepancy between the two different regimes. As stated by measure 17 in order to enhance the State-owned companies, Italian Government is working on a new wave of privatization according to law 474/1994 by the institution of a Committee for privatization. In order to enhance the internationalization of business, measure 11 announces a revision of the Black List regulation to limit the restrictions inherent to the withholding and dividends tax regime in cross-border transactions with companies located in countries on the black list.
Our Country has a strategic position for the import/export system, so more interventions to facilitate and speed up custom procedures and an improvement of the logistics network (land reclamation works, reform of Italian ports and airports) are included in the new project.
Each of these reforms denotes a common denominator: enhancing Italy’s productive assets, attracting human capital and improving business environment.
In the agenda of the Government there aren’t only business and financial operations:
- a labour law reform according with European and international legislation while also providing an English version of a new Labour Act;
- enhancement of cultural heritage and tourism in the Country;
- implementation of a national energy strategy to reduce the cost of consumption in a sustainable eco-environmental (green economy) .
Regarding human resources, Italy wants to attract talents to deal with the opposite phenomenon of "brain drain”: the aim is to improve a global education system, promoting spin-offs between enterprises and universities and providing incentives for companies for resources used in research and development (R&D).
The message to be communicated is of being a growing country. The numerical data about the presence of foreign direct investments in our economy are not comforting and the need to increase the attractiveness of the country is the reason of above- mentioned structural reforms.
Silvano Lorusso
Giulia Laddaga