The amount of foreign investments in strategic areas for development and competitiveness attracted to our country by the Investor Visa for Italy program, managed by the Ministry of Economic Development (Mise), which recorded a strong increase in operations activated in 2021. This is what emerges from the first monitoring report published by the Mise, with the data updated to last December 31st.
“These results confirm how important it is to create the right conditions and activate a framework of clear and simple tools to make our country prefer our country to foreign investors”, commented Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti. “The Mise – added the minister – has launched a new strategy that aims to accelerate the attraction of investments in our production system and find solid and reliable investors to support both economic recovery and growth projects, including related ones. to the PNRR, is able to relaunch companies that are in temporary difficulty “.
Investor Visa is a program launched in 2017 by the Ministry that provides for a quick, simplified and digital visa granting procedure for the benefit of non-EU citizens who intend to make an important investment or philanthropic donation in Italy. As of December 31, 2021, 64 applications were registered, from 20 countries, with an approval rate of 78.1%. Most of the candidates opted for investment operations in Italian joint-stock companies (43), followed by investments in innovative start-ups (9), in government bonds (10) and philanthropic donations (2). Note the significant increase in applications in 2021, in which 40 new applications were received, compared to the average recorded since the beginning of the program. In particular, considering only the 50 successful candidates, the total of investments mobilized is 18 million euros, while the investments expected from candidates for which the authorization has been issued amount to a further 22.1 million euros, for a total of resources entering the Italian territory equal to 40.1 million euros. Investor Visa for Italy applicants come from 20 different countries. The first in terms of number of visa applicants are the United States (14) and Russia (14), which account for 21.9% of the total, while the United Kingdom ranks second with 7 (10.9%).