ROME (ITALPRESS) – Improvement in turnover and exports in the South, deterioration for both factors in the North Central. This is the picture taken in the report “The competitiveness of medium-sized enterprises in the South between risk perception and innovation strategies” by Mediobanca’s Study Area, Centro Studi Tagliacarne and Unioncamere presented today in Bari. A productive reality that in the South has 431 family-controlled manufacturing companies, each with a workforce of between 50 and 499 and a sales volume of between €17 million and €370 million.In 2023, their turnover increased by 2.7 percent, compared to a 3.6 percent drop in those in the Center-North, while exports rose by 4.4 percent, compared to a 2.1 percent decrease in the others. Also for the current year, medium-sized companies in the South expect to achieve an increase of around 2 percent in their turnover and exports, as opposed to a decline expected by those in the rest of Italy of 1.5 percent and 4 percent, respectively.Also making a difference are investments in technologies 4.0 initiated or planned by 2026 by 87.3 percent of medium-sized companies in the South (compared to 82.1 percent of the others).In addition, 41.3 percent will start investing in artificial intelligence in the next three years (compared to 37.5 percent), not only to improve activities, but also to implement new and more innovative ones. And they will also do so thanks to the resources provided by the NRP: nearly 50 percent of medium-sized companies in the South believe they can contribute to the country’s economic growth (vs. 43 percent of the others), 42.9 percent believe they are useful for the digital transition (vs. 41.1 percent) and 37.5 percent for the green transition (vs. 33.7 percent). However, due to excessive bureaucracy and difficulties in executing projects, half of the medium-sized enterprises in the South assess that the National Plan will not bring any benefits.”The data confirm an interesting dynamism in the South that should be supported, including by encouraging the path taken by medium-sized enterprises that are proving to be an important engine of economic development,” said Unioncamere President Andrea Prete, who added, “However, the excess of bureaucracy that risks hindering the growth path of the South and the difficulties in finding the right profiles to ride the complexity of the challenges of our times, starting with artificial intelligence, are worrying.” “The vitality of our Mezzogiorno is evidenced by the doubling, in 27 years, of the number of medium-sized enterprises operating there. A figure that highlights the virtuous union between a part of our country that wants to achieve its own economic redemption and that form of entrepreneurship that has already contributed to the fortunes of the rest of Italy,” said Gabriele Barbaresco, director of the Mediobanca Studies Area. “The dynamism of medium-sized enterprises shows, in a nutshell, that the era of ‘small is beautiful’ is over and today’s is probably the era of ‘grow up or get out.’ Especially for medium-sized enterprises, there are no one-size-fits-all recipes, but certainly one cannot, nor will be able to, disregard the central role of medium-sized enterprises (almost always small become large), clearly addressing the challenges of the employment mismatch with adequate investment, innovation and system-building capacity, coordinating the ability to cooperate with a view to the overall development of the Mezzogiorno,” stressed the president of the Bari Chamber of Commerce, Luciana Di Bisceglie.In a little more than a quarter of a century, the number of companies that make up family capitalism in Southern Italy has more than doubled, from 213 companies in 1996 to 431 in 2022, compared to an overall growth of Central-Northern companies of the same “size” of 13 percent (about 3,600 units in 2022).Increasing especially is the number of Mid-Caps in Campania (+114 units), Puglia (+46) and Sicily (+27). Today, Southern Italy’s mid-caps account for just 0.5 percent of the southern business fabric, but collectively realize 11.9 percent of the area’s total manufacturing value added.In Apulia, there are 84 mid-caps and they generate 11.4 percent of the entire region’s manufacturing value added. Southern medium-sized enterprises have recorded data in contrast to the traditional image of a homogeneously lagging Mezzogiorno. In the decade from 2013 to 2022, their turnover increased by 71.2 percent compared to 59.7 percent for firms in the North-Center. Their productivity grew by 33.4 percent compared to 29.1 percent for the rest of Italy, and competitiveness increased by 26 percentage points (+13.9 p.p. the other areas), with a significant increase in the workforce (+29.6 percent vs +22.3 percent). These positive results are even more remarkable when one considers that they were achieved despite a tax burden that penalizes the Southern Mid-Caps: the average tax rate for the decade is 31.3 percent vs. 28.5 percent for the other areas. If they had been imposed the same taxation as companies in the Center-North, they would have saved 220 million euros over the decade.2023 also ended with a 2.7 percent growth in sales for Southern Mid-Caps compared to a 3.6 percent decline for those in the other areas, and despite the highly challenging environment, expectations for 2024 remain cautiously optimistic (+2 percent for sales and exports) compared to a negative expectation for Mid-Caps in the Center-North (-1.5 percent and -4 percent, respectively).Finding suitable professional profiles is likely to become the main obstacle to growth for mid-sized companies, particularly for those in the South. Over the past 24 months, more than 80 percent of them said they have experienced problems related to this critical issue; the share is halved for companies in other areas (42.8 percent).This is also why 33.3 percent of these companies aim to hire foreign workers in the next three years, mainly because of the unavailability of Italian workers (61.9 percent) and the lack of young people (28.6 percent).Still on the subject of Human Capital, the presence of women in Mid-Cap companies in the South is just 12.4 percent of the workforce (only 3 percent in a managerial position); the shares are higher with reference to Mid-Cap companies in other areas (27.3 percent and 9.7 percent).
– Photo Agency Photogram –
(ITALPRESS).
