The economist Luca Bianchi is the new Director of SVIMEZ. The Board of Directors appointed him.
Bianchi had previously worked at SVIMEZ, where he was hired by 1996 and became Deputy Director in 2006. In 2012 he was chosen to fill the position of Councilor for the Economy of the Sicily Region in the Giunta Crocetta until March 2014. Later he was appointed Head of the Department of Competitive Policies, Agro-Food Quality, Horse Racing and Fisheries of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, a position he held until 28 February 2018.
He has collaborated in his career with numerous magazines and newspapers, is the author of the book "But the sky is always higher?" Together with Giuseppe Provenzano, current Deputy Director SVIMEZ.
DEPTH:
SVIMEZ, Association for the development of industry in Southern Italy, is a private non-profit organization established on December 2, 1946 by a group of important personalities from the Italian industrial and financial world, decides during the Second World War to create to a research and study center specialized in Southern Italy.
The goals
The main objective of the Association is the study of the economy of the South, to propose to the central and local institutions concrete programs of development of the southern regions, thus achieving "the unification of Italy even economically".
The tools: industrialize with public and extraordinary intervention
The association's leit motiv is to "industrialize" the Mezzogiorno, that is to promote development with the application of industrial logics to all sectors of the economy, services and tourism included.
It is not the free market left to itself that can solve the "southern question", but the State, which must promote the growth of the South with a coordinated set of public actions and "extraordinary" interventions.
Extraordinary for three reasons:
- create a convenience for investment in an area that alone would not attract external entrepreneurs;
- to support large infrastructural and other infrastructures that require resources that are impossible for private individuals;
- support the activities of ordinary administrations, limited and ineffective.
Statistics serving the South
Numerous technical and scientific contributions that the Association has provided over the years to central and local institutions and institutions. Among these, we recall the elaboration of indicators of the "depression" of the South, which already from the early years' 50 statistically measured territorial disparities and Italian dualism; the Employment and Income Development Scheme in Italy in the decade 1955-64, better known as the "Vanoni Scheme"; the publication, from the 1974, of the annual "Reports SVIMEZ on the economy of the South"; the Reports on the Mezzogiorno of Europe of the 90 years; the drafting of regional development plans (Regione Calabria, Puglia, Campania) and regional socio-economic observatories.
Since the XNUMXs, the issue of development gaps between areas within the same country has been addressed not only from a national perspective, as evidenced by the collaborations with important Italian and international institutions (IRI, CENSIS, IASM, FORMEZ, 'IPI, OECD, MIT-USA).
SVIMEZ has also been very active in the field of training; in collaboration with the "Ford Foundation", the Center for Studies on Economic Development and the School of Specialization on the problems of development policy was born in 1957.
The laws for the South
Since the early years of activity, SVIMEZ has devoted great care and attention to southern legislation, the so-called “law for the South”, with numerous analyzes, volumes, comments on special interventions and studies on regional, national and community legislation.