The Zes Unica instrument for the South takes its first steps but continues to raise doubts. The municipal councilor for Economic Activities confirms the doubts expressed already in the past months Antonio Borelli which intervenes on the new regulation of the tax credit reserved for investments in SEZ areas, as the system “risks not giving adequate responses to the specificity of the economic reality of Calabria”. Alongside the delays in launching the Strategic Plan, Borelli highlights that the methods of distribution of the bonus “which rewards investments made or to be made in 2024, from an initial analysis do not seem to be sufficient to give certainty that the territory can benefit from it compared to an allocation of 1.8 billion euros”.
As already stated in the past months, he reiterates that projects below 200 thousand euros cannot be supported. In his opinion, a threshold that is “not very encouraging compared to the structure and financial stability of the small and medium-sized enterprises that largely make up our economic fabric”. The fear, and “the risk”, is “that a homogeneous criterion, adopted just in case, proves inadequate in putting resources and productive investments on the ground in nearby territories, which are nevertheless economically and infrastructurally diversified”.
In any case, he recalls that the administration has been mobilizing in the direction of the SEZ for some time, recalling the proposal for a SEZ area in Germaneto, linked to the vocations of knowledge, made before the unification of the economic zone for the South. And he also highlights the discussions initiated «with the representative forces of the categories, sharing doubts, proposals and actions in the work table carried out, in particular, with the industrialists' association». A story that «is strongly intertwined with the hypothesis of establishing the urban free zone, on which the Municipality had formulated possible solutions capable of impacting the redevelopment of commercial activities and which, today, with a tax credit also to support trade loses its original value”. In any case, the councilor continues, the initiatives to support investments will be evaluated «alongside those who have a finger on the pulse of the economy of this region», hoping «that the objective of the single SEZ, i.e. bridging the gaps that separate the South from the rest of the country, can find concrete form.”