Confindustria Torino met up in the new and impressive Lavazza building to present innovative regional development projects to the citizens of Turin.
A meeting set up for employees and local citizens wanting to pro-actively discuss the city’s future. A Call for Ideas competition was launched on the website www.domani.to.it before the meeting, with the aim of collecting proposals from associations, foundations and universities regarding the Piedmont capital’s future. Five questions were asked on the website for the relaunch; 1) how should we attract investments? 2) what should the development model look like for the next few years? 3) how should we spark innovation? 4) what should the tourism and culture models look like? 5) what areas of infrastructure should we focus on? Five questions for five key sectors: research and innovation, tourism and culture, youth employment, infrastructure and foreign investment.
After Marco Lavazza opened the meeting, the President of the Unione Industriali Torino, Dario Gallina, delivered a talk, which was followed by a presentation on Turin’s future by Professor Barba Navaretti from the University of Milan. The morning continued with a round table moderated by La Stampa’s chief editor, Molinari, and involved the participation of the President of the Region of Piedmont, Piero Chiamparino, the Mayor of Turin, Chiara Appendino, Cassa Depositi and Prestiti SpA Infrastructure Manager, Gianluca Gustani and the CEO of ZTE Italia and the President of Western Europe, Hu Kun.
“The importance of digital innovation’s role in the future of this city and others should be not be underestimated,” stated Hu Kun. Our company was founded in Shenzen, once a production city and now the heart of innovation in China. Thanks to our own experiences, we’ve learned two key things: the first is that all innovation comes with costs for entrepreneurs, costs that must and can be reduced. The second is that cities must be extremely open and welcoming to new talent and must understand how to attract and train said talent.”
The meeting was brought to a close by Vincenzo Boccia, President of Confindustria, who reiterated the importance of infrastructure as a growth factor, starting with the TAV, which he called “a decisive piece of work.” “Infrastructure is not a question of ideology,” he said. “It connects suburbs to hubs and towns around the world.”