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Italian Government Project Funding

Investments in Strategic Sectors

One of the Italian government's principal objectives for re-launching the economy is an ambitious ten-year infrastructure network development plan.
The programme approved by CIPE in December 2001 has been translated into a framework law, an instrument by which the principal projects to be undertaken within a ten-year time span are identified, and should allocate total resources of no less than 125.8 billion euro.

Thanks to its previous willingness, and in the light of legislative provisions already approved, in one year the government has been able to guarantee 30% of the programme costs, amounting to some 37.9 billion euro allocated to cover the first 3 years (11.9 billion euro had originally been made available).

This quest for funds has led to a launch of concrete initiatives by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
From July 2001 to June 2002, during the administration's first year, 32.2 billion euro's worth of projects were launched and jobsites for a total value of 6 billion euro were opened.
In the second year other projects valued at 28.8 billion euro were begun, with 19.4 billion euro worth of worksites.

The main projects under way include: the Mestre bypass, the Marches-Umbria throughway, the Salerno-Reggio Calabria motorway, the MO.SE. system for the safeguarding of Venice, the Torino-Novara high-speed railway line, the Fréjus railway tunnel, the Padova-Mestre railway network, the new Brescia-Bergamo-Milano motorway, the Milan-Venice high speed, high-capacity railway line, expansion of the Rome ring-road (Grande Raccordo Anulare), and the preliminary design for the Messina bridge.

In addition to the operations contemplated by the Initial Strategic Works Programme, the Government has placed particular attention on the projects foreseen in various ordinary plans and, in particular, those outlined in the three-year Anas (Italian State Road Maintenance Company) plan, the Priority Operations Plan for the State Railways, and in national and regional operative plans, as well as those foreseen in long-term expenditure legislation regarding the construction of port, inter-port, and airport "hubs".

These are projects currently defined as ordinary and have been included in a specific measure known as the General Framework Agreement containing all eventual operations for each individual region for a structured distribution in the territory's infrastructure.

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