We receive and publish a note from Franco Gentile, president of Cna (National Confederation of Crafts and Small and Medium Enterprises) Brindisi.
The annual ranking on the quality of life of the Sole 24 Ore places Brindisi, once again, in one of the last positions. We do not belong to those who attach particular importance to these statistical data, especially since it is known that a single staggered element (or poorly communicated by the territories concerned) is enough to cause collapses in consensus or climbs that are difficult to achieve in just one year. Having said this, it is clear that some signs must be grasped, especially when it comes to assessing the quality of life as a whole.
For example, it clearly emerges that all the cities of the south suffer from a delay in the provision of public services and also in the level of schooling. As a chain, there is a very limited interest in the management of the territory at a political level and more generally in any form of active participation. In short, we pay for a cultural backwardness that starts from afar and which becomes even more so due to the substantial absence of an adequate university training offer.
On the contrary, the economy based on the creation of new businesses is holding up well, given that Brindisi is in a good position for new registrations in the Business Register and for the dynamism linked to youth entrepreneurship. On this it is necessary to give credit to the Puglia Region which has put in place, in recent years, incentive support instruments for youth entrepreneurship. A protagonism, however, which has to deal with the “real” distance of the banking system, so wary of old and new entrepreneurs and so little directed towards real support for those who risk their future every day just to “do business ”.
It is clear, however, that there are gaps that the territory will have to fill autonomously. The reference is to the now chronic problem of the slowness of the administrative machinery which – as also emerges from the statistical data – alienates foreign investors and also from other regions. We have been saying this for some time and perhaps we have become accustomed to the idea that it is necessary to wait years to obtain an authorisation. For those who have to invest and have to choose a site, on the other hand, this aspect becomes a fundamental element in choosing where and how to do it.
To all this must be added the infrastructural gaps on which direct and immediate intervention by the State is needed, capable of determining effective conditions for reducing the gap towards the rest of the country.
Finally, the element linked to the livability of our cities is often underestimated. It cannot be ignored that speaking of the presence of accommodation facilities, social centers for the elderly, nursery schools, polyclinics, equipped hospitals and the “visibility” of the forces of order (to raise the perception of safety) means referring to influential elements for determining conditions for economic growth and employment in the area. Indeed, they are factors that have a decisive influence on the choice.
This is why even those who do business cannot limit themselves to observing the growth or decrease data of their sector, without considering that “quality” must be 360 degrees to be truly decisive for turning the page.