"We acknowledge that there is a attention signal with the refinancing for 1.6 billion of the single SEZ investment tax credit for 2025. We also appreciate the opening of the discussion in Parliament on the possibility of combining this facility with the 5.0 tax credit, an option that would be necessary. But Decontribution Southa measure that was essential not only to preserve employment but also to grow the workforce. The facilitation that should take its place still remains an unknown quantity, both in terms of content and in the way it works'. Thus Natale Mazzuca, Confindustria Vice President for Strategic Policies for the Development of Southern Italy, in an interview with Sole24Ore.

"We share the choice of rigour on public accounts," but according to Mazzuca today the manoeuvre is weak on investment and in supporting companies that invest. For this "We trust that there is room to rethink this approach and as Confindustria we are working in this direction with the government".

Mazzuca emphasised that Confindustria wants to "contribute to the construction of the new measure. The new subsidies for hiring disadvantaged people do not compensate for the loss of a relevant tool such as Decontribuzione Sud. The impact of this measure affected 3 million workers last year, two out of three on permanent contracts, with half of the subsidised hirings in companies with more than 15 employees. "For the future," the Vice President continued, "we will be able to make a significant contribution to the future. What is needed is an equally ambitious intervention in narrowing the gaps and not selective, since it will have to cover the entire productive apparatus of the South. It will also have to avoid overlapping with the tax credit on ZES investmentsa risk that we glimpse between the folds of the regulatory wording contained in the manoeuvre. The five years provided for in the regulation establishing it facilitate medium-term choices and are therefore a positive decision. The new intervention should take the form of an easy-to-use measure, which can be combined with other incentives and is also linked to the labour component and the necessary upgrading of skills".

This "Now is the time to push, to seize the signs of vitality in the South and adopt strategies to release and accompany the South's potential,' Mazzuca added, 'aiming for growth. What is needed is a strategic vision that reinforces the policies adopted so far, that creates structured supply chains around southern excellence, that increases infrastructure endowment. And that supports the productive capacity of the South in order to balance the negative differential of doing business in the South, due to known and still unresolved factors such as infrastructure and the quality of essential public services. A targeted strategy is needed, which rests on two legs".

According to the VP, What is needed is 'on the one hand an action that starts from existing excellence and, around this, builds diversified and structured supply chains. This process must be accompanied by incisive support measures such as the ZES tax credit and by adequate infrastructure investments, first and foremost those financed by the NRP. On the other hand, support is needed for the resilience of the economic and social fabric, not in a welfarist logic but to maintain the productive capacity of the South and not to dissipate its development potential". Two legs, each with its own supporting strategy: "the Strategic Plan on the SEZ, the tax credit, the new cohesion policy, and the measures to favour productive settlements linked to strategic supply chains that are part of that package of interventions to spread and strengthen a widespread entrepreneurial fabric. On the other hand,' Mazzuca concluded, 'Decontribution South was the main measure on which the second leg rests and will have to lead to an intervention that is just as effective in mitigating competitiveness gaps and just as simple in the way it can be used by companies. It will have to be agreed with Europe, so we hope that those negotiations will be concluded as soon as possible, with a positive outcome'.