«In recent years we have consolidated a very fruitful relationship with the Calabrian business system because we have also agreed on the tenders we issue with the business system, so much so that they have received great attention. I want to remember that when I took office a few years ago I had found two billion euros that my predecessors had not spent, and thanks to the relationship with the business system we have put all these resources on the ground, creating the conditions, as Banca Italia is also studying, for the macroeconomic data to change positively in Calabria”.
The president of the Calabria Region, Roberto Occhiuto, said this in his speech on the occasion of the discussion between exponents of associations, cultural and business at a conference organized at the National Museum of Magna Grecia in Reggio Calabria by the Civita Association, to network and identify a sustainable development path for our region.
«There is however – underlined Roberto Occhiuto – the need to overcome a narrative that has been consolidated for years according to which Calabria is a region where it is better not to invest due to the presence of the ‘ndrangheta, I have always said that the ndrangheta sucks and must be fought in every way, trying to explain to public and private investors that the ndrangheta now invests much more in other regions, in Lombardy, Veneto, and not in Calabria, thanks to the precious work of the investigators and of the police force.”
“Give another narrative of Calabria”
«There is widespread control of the territory – he continued – so those who come to work in Calabria work in conditions, paradoxically, of greater safety compared to other contexts where this phenomenon is unknown, infiltrates and is often not combated in the right way. We must therefore give another narrative of Calabria, otherwise the ‘ndrangheta does double damage, in addition to having killed the future of Calabria in the past with this terrible advert of a region destined not to be able to develop, today it becomes an alibi for politicians, because many politicians have also used this alibi to say that this region cannot be developed. And instead this region has many engines that in recent years I have tried to rekindle, to get back in motion and the results are starting to be seen, for example, the increased visits to the National Museum of Magna Graecia, because when the Reggio Calabria airport, which was a dead airport, becomes the first airport in terms of growth rates in Europe and has a number of passengers never experienced before in the history of Calabria, contributing to the increase in tourist flows. And again: we have invested – said Occhiuto – a lot on the right to study, on research, giving universities the opportunity to strengthen their activity and become universities of excellence in a region that needs this knowledge, a development engine that we have rekindled together and which is producing results sooner, with the birth of many start-ups”.
“Gioia Tauro: the port will become a reference for Abruzzo and for all their manufacturing production”
«I would like to underline that the port of Gioia Tauro has handled over 5 million containers despite the critical issues that exist in the Mediterranean, but it is still a transshipment port, that is, not a single euro remains in Calabria because the containers are unloaded and brought back to other ships which then leave again. From this, we are working to strengthen intermodality to increase the trains departing from Gioia Tauro, committing investments in this direction, and I am also talking to my other colleagues who are regional presidents, and I am able to give you some news: the port of Gioia Tauro will also become the reference port of Abruzzo”. The president of the Calabria Region, Roberto Occhiuto, said this, speaking at a conference in Reggio. «We are in fact discussing with the president of Abruzzo – he explained – the possibility of bringing all the Abruzzo manufacturing production by train to Gioia Tauro and then starting it from Gioia Tauro, further strengthening the port with the railway so Calabria also has great possibilities of attracting investments».