15.11.2020 – 18.30 – With the health crisis far from being over, and the consequent heavy economic crisis that can, in reality, be said to have only just begun, to look towards the future and think about what the building blocks for resuming a normal life and planning the reconstruction of what will be lost is, today, certainly a difficult undertaking. However, if on the one hand it seems unthinkable to think in different terms from those of the health emergency into which we were catapulted with the arrival of the Coronavirus, it is fundamental, and necessary, to start doing so immediately, and planning with a view to future recovery is perhaps the most effective thing we can do at the moment.
Before the pandemic, there was talk of logistics and research as fundamental assets for the future of Friuli Venezia Giulia; they still are today. With the sea and a system of ports, interports, infrastructures and connections that continues to grow and develop on the one hand, and on the other, a leading role in scientific research thanks to the expertise present in the area. Friuli Venezia Giulia’s leading role has been consolidated this year with ESOF2020, which also had the merit of putting the spotlight on an area such as the Porto Vecchio. We talked about this with the President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, Massimiliano Fedriga.
Logistics, research and innovation: are these the fundamental assets for the development of the area?
“I believe that Friuli-Venezia Giulia should become, or at least my dream is that it should become, a logistics and innovation hub for the whole of Central and Eastern Europe. We need to enter a market that has a strong need for this to happen.
We were talking, for example, with Hungary and Austria about finding a meeting point that can guarantee mutual development. If these players participate in the growth of Friuli Venezia Giulia, they do so clearly because here they find opportunities within the services that we can provide. This is as much true for logistics, being countries that need connection and development, especially for freight traffic, as it is for innovation: if we, for example, were able to put the training part in contact with the productive part for the creation of innovation and professional start-ups, we would be able to provide an important service and at the same time have huge regional development.
I think that Friuli-Venezia Giulia should therefore act as a bridge – which is its history – with the whole geographical area of central, northern and eastern Europe, and on this we are already trying to involve the great actors of the advanced tertiary sector; we must be attractive”.
In this context logistics, in particular with the Port of Trieste, plays a preponderant role. In your opinion, in which direction should we look?
“I think a port should think from a commercial point of view: a company that thinks it has a single client risks becoming a company that depends on that single client, and that is dangerous. We must always diversify, also to strengthen the structure itself in the long-term sustainability. I think it is important that the port of Trieste has, especially given the importance it now has at a European level, commercial – and therefore not political – relations with the whole world and in particular with the East and Asia, but not simply with China: I am thinking for example of India, which will probably be one of the markets that will see the greatest growth in the coming years. I believe that that route, which can touch Singapore, butI am also thinking of all the Gulf countries, could represent an important opportunity for Trieste and for the whole of Central and Eastern Europe”.
There was also the agreement between the Hamburg giant Hhla (Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG) and the company Piattaforma Logistica Trieste. What do you think?
“I see the intervention of Hamburg in the port of Trieste as something positive, with which we can certainly assume an increase in traffic to Germany, which is certainly one of those key hubs also for the Far East itself: Asia and the East. If we think that, as far as iron is concerned, referring to China, the main interport is German. Therefore, creating a system of this whole European geographical area is useful, and this is also what we are doing as Friuli Venezia Giulia Region together with the port of Trieste and Monfalcone, with the Port System Authority; I am thinking of the integration we are carrying out with the Trieste, Cervignano and Gorizia SDAG freight villages, but also with the Carinthian freight village and one of the two Hungarian freight villages in Budapest”.
The issue of the effective implementation of the free-tradezone status of Trieste has recently returned to the spotlight. Why do you think the situation has remained “frozen” for so long?
“I think that for many years there has been a lack of interest in this area of Italy. I think the problem is that the potential of the port of Trieste is little perceived in Rome, and there is too much perception of a European regulation that does not really concern it: the free-trade port of Trieste is something that predates the European Union itself, enshrined in Annex VIII of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947. We are not a European free-trade zone, and we cannot live within those rules. I think that implementing the agreements can be useful to the whole country: I say this because a free-trade zone within the national territory does not mean competing with other Italian productive territories, but it means forming that fundamental buffer zone, for example, to avoid relocations. And we have concrete cases: companies ready to move to the port of Trieste if the free-trade zone system is implemented. Also, because the alternative is not for these companies to stay in other parts of Italy, but to move to Eastern Europe, where there are attractive tax regimes and, for labour, much lower costs than in our country”.
Not only logistics, it has been said, but also research and innovation. ESOF2020 has been a fundamental part of this process: on the whole, do you think the event was a success?
“I believe that despite the pandemic, ESOF 2020 has achieved a good result, and I think that organizing a scientific event that poses questions to science itself, comparing realities around the world right now, was a good sign. Moreover, this event was also a test on how to challenge the pandemic itself, and I think the battle was won. However, it is equally clear that ESOF cannot be the end of what happened and is still happening in Porto Vecchio; rather, it is one of the means that acts as a sounding board for a project that, as far as Trieste is concerned, must be above all linked to research and training”.
Are you referring to the idea of creating a sort of “scientific research hub” in Porto Vecchio? How do you imagine it?
“What I imagine is an area of Porto Vecchio – not the whole of Porto Vecchio, obviously because I think that within it there may also be other activities – where research and training, public and private, large companies and start-ups can intersect. This is also what has made possible the success of all innovative companies and organizations in the world: a place where a multinational company gets in touch with asmaller one, to create innovation. Moreover, we have, asFriuli Venezia Giulia, thanks to Trieste, an added value compared to the others: a very strong basic research. This allows us to look at things in a medium and long-termperspective, because applied research as an end in itself is very profitable, but usually has a short life. We must therefore bridge the gap that exists between business and research, and I hope that within the Porto Vecchio, also thanks to the attractiveness and beauty of that area, we can achieve this result”.
What about the rest of Porto Vecchio? Would you be in favour of a residential part placed in it?
“On the residential part, we can talk about it in the future, should the need arise. To date, I am very hesitant: if we do not see an increase in population in Trieste it would simply mean moving the city from one side to the other. I think that there could, instead, be a series of services, and thus make the area alive”.
The intention, then, is not to “move” what is already present but rather to “create” something new?
“Moving things in Porto Vecchio cannot be the goal. Not only would it desertify the rest of the city but it would do nothing for its development. I would therefore avoid filling up the area, for example, by simply moving research bodies already present in Trieste to other places. The Porto Vecchio cannot simply be used to transfer existing bodies and institutions, because otherwise it would lead to nothing”.
Research in Friuli Venezia Giulia is not only Trieste.
“We have done, and we are doing all the reorganization of the part related to science parks that does not only concern Trieste, but the whole region: I am thinking of Udine, Carnia, Pordenone. In my opinion, we must also specialise the various science parks in the area, because otherwise their work could overlap with that of other businesses. And this is not good because it is a waste of resources and risks not creating that extra value for the companies that want to establish themselves in those areas”.
If we talk about research and innovation, the link with the energy transition issue is inevitable.
“Yes, in particular, on this front, an important agreement has recently been signed with Snam regarding the whole hydrogen-related part. I think this is the future of energy; although it is still in the development phase, I believe that the hydrogen strand is quite promising, also in relation to what the European projects within the Green Economy are. At the same time, from the research point of view, it is one of those interesting projects, and if Friuli Venezia Giulia were to become attractive on this issue this would mean creating an important network with all the production activities linked to gas and energy”.
Will logistics with research and innovation, and now important contracts, be enough to get out of the crisis?
“I think there is no alternative to looking ahead to get out of the crisis. I think there are two steps to take in this sense: first of all, do not let the companies that already exist die, and this means support them and trying to keep them open. Then, I think we must also be able to plan and continue: if we think that there is a wall in the middle, the ‘before’ and ‘after the crisis’ wall, then it means that we start from scratch. So I think we have to look at the projects we have put in place, from the Porto Vecchio to the infrastructure, working on them; otherwise we risk to passively watch events happening to us“.
[Nicole Petrucci]
[m.g]
