«The Strait port system represents a strategic infrastructure for the competitiveness of Calabria and the entire South. Its position can strengthen connections between territories, businesses and major commercial routes in the Mediterranean.” This is what was stated by the Undersecretary of State at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers with responsibility for the South, Luigi Sbarra, speaking this morning in Reggio Calabria, at Palazzo Corrado Alvaro, at the Workshop «Port system of the Strait. From Reggio Calabria a development path for the competitiveness of the territory”, organized by the House of Made in Italy of Reggio Calabria and Energia Media.
During his speech, the undersecretary recalled the growth of Southern Italy and the role of the tools put in place by the Government, starting with the Single ZES. «We have allocated 300 million euros to the infrastructure of industrial, productive and artisanal areas. With the ZES we have also strengthened administrative simplification and supported investments through tax credits.” From 1 January 2024 to 15 September 2026, 1,529 Single Authorizations were issued, for 9.8 billion euros of private investments. In the two-year period 2024-2025, there were 17,378 tax credit requests, for 12.5 billion euros of investments.
«The territorial data is particularly significant», highlighted Sbarra. In Calabria, in the same period, 77 Single Authorizations were issued, supporting 669.5 million euros of investments while the tax credit applications were around 1,700, for over 1 billion euros of investments, with an overall economic impact estimated at around 4.5 billion euros and around 3,200 employment impacts.
«The port must not be an isolated infrastructure – he concluded – but part of a productive ecosystem. It is from this integration that we must start to transform potential into concrete projects. The Government will continue to do its part through investments, simplification, SEZs and cohesion policies. The challenge is to strengthen the competitiveness of Calabria and the entire South in its natural Mediterranean dimension.”