The future of the SEZ divides politics in these latitudes. Luigi Sbarra, former leader of the CISL and now undersecretary at Palazzo Chigi with responsibility for the South, sees in the Special Economy Zone a viaticum for the relaunch of the South, and therefore also of Calabria.
There are those who argue that the expansion of the SEZ risks penalizing the South. Is it really like that?
«No, it is an interpretation that is not supported by the facts. The Single Zes is based on two pillars: a real administrative simplification, with single authorizations issued in half the normal time, and a tax credit recognized to the maximum extent permitted by European regulations. We have gone from eight regional SEZs, limited to specific port and backport areas, to a single SEZ macro-region which includes the whole of Southern Italy. Yet, this first enlargement did not weaken the system, it strengthened it. Between 2017 and 2023 there were 279 authorizations; with the single SEZ, in just two years, we are over 1,000, with around 6 billion in investments and more than 17,000 employment benefits. To this we must add the tax credit requests which in 2024/2025 were over 17,300, for almost 13 billion in private investments. Even in Calabria the results are significant: 447.4 million in investments activated by 53 unique authorizations between 2024 and 2025, of which 29 in the last year alone. On the tax credit front, however, 1,700 applications were recorded for a total of more than one billion in investments. In 2025 alone, compared to an overall increase of 185 thousand employed at a national level, almost half, 88 thousand, can be traced back to the southern regions. In this context, the Zes played a central role with employment incentives”.
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