Milan, May 6, 2021 - "We want to grow in Italy, creating jobs and building sustainable works. To do so, we only ask to work. We have many construction sites open and to be opened, in many regions. We are asking all those involved, to speed up the tender processes. We are in an emergency, and every tender awarded means thousands of people working. In the next two months, RFI is ready to activate 7 construction sites, as an extraordinary lever for Italy’s GDP growth, in addition to the Recovery Plan. Ferrovie dello Stato alone are developing a plan of over €58 billion, of which €35 billion are still to be tendered. This could create a total of 650,000 potential employees, taking into consideration all related industries. "This is what Webuild CEO Pietro Salini said at the Il Messaggero webinar "Obbligati a crescere" (Forced to grow). He also added that "We came back to Italy to respond to a call to arms. We wanted to put ourselves at the service of our country during this key relaunch phase, where infrastructure will play a decisive role for employment".

To face the post-COVID recovery "we must firstly decide which country we want to be in the next 30 years. We must choose our mission, acting accordingly, with targeted industry, tourism, school and hospital plans, while also regenerating urban and sustainable mobility infrastructure", continued Pietro Salini. In doing so, he indicated that the €235 billion, the total foreseen by the PNRR, and by the additional resources made available by REACT EU and the Complementary Fund, barely suffice to really change Italy, in an anti-cyclical perspective, at least. And this is obviously true if we just consider how profound the crisis is. And that Italy was already in a very difficult condition, even before the pandemic broke out.

"We must compare the PNRR resources to the 9,600 billion-GDP expected for the next 6 years. Against which the PNRR resources amount to approximately 2.5% of the GDP: i.e. what we spent before the crisis. We are in an emergency.

And we must therefore use emergency tools to relaunch our country. The PNRR is a very important tool. Still, it only represents, just one aspect of a plan that must necessarily be a broader one. We already spent 200 billion, in support, during this epochal crisis. We must transform these resources into tools for Italy's continuous growth. The infrastructure included in the PNRR also concern works already in progress. We must still think of tools able to create additional employment, providing a real sprint to the economy, therefore generating new trust, and a related reactivate demand. We all lived, as if suspended, this year. And we did not use the available time to plan for our future. This is why we must do so immediately, also by designing new works throughout Italy. Italian engineering exported great skills, globally. It is made up of large design companies and freelance professionals, which must start immediately working to design the infrastructure of the Italy that we want to become in the next 30 years".

According to Salini, employment must be a priority. It is, in fact, the real issue when it comes to sustainability. "With 4.5 million more unemployed people, at the end of the pandemic, we now must talk about environmental sustainability, and how to reduce emissions. These issues must be seen as objectives of shared growth. And this must be done, with new forms of production, capable of creating greater employment. Our company has launched its 2021-2023 ESG plan. We strongly believe in it. And this year, it also safeguarded employment for thousands of people, too. Sustainability means growing responsibly. It means relaunching employment, by retraining those who are losing their jobs, with the new skills needed by the market. And with sustainable production, going hand in hand with the relaunch of employment".