Milan - May 12, 2021 - A common vision for the future. A proactive, non-divisive spirit that relaunches a new ability of designing and building to create new jobs now, considering employment as the first true form of sustainability. These are the main challenges that Italy must be able to face today, said Webuild CEO Pietro Salini, during the digital event "Rigenerazione Urbana" (Urban Regeneration), organized by COIMA, a platform that focuses on investing, developing and managing real estate assets, on behalf of institutional investors.

Maintenance, sustainable mobility for cities and between cities, interventions against hydrogeological instability, and the effective management of water resources are needed now, to shape a better future for Italy. Still, according to Salini, we first must start by relaunching employment, supporting the demand, also by using record private savings, which are currently mostly unused.

"We have to race against time, to start working on projects included in the PNRR, in 2026. Still, we face an even greater challenge, which is planning for the future, for which we do not need to wait until the PNRR is activated. We must start now” - commented Salini. “Our Group has just joined OICE (Association of Engineering and Architecture Organizations) because the greatest contribution that Webuild can make to Italy today is to offer our experience, setting this thought machine in motion. Performing works is always possible. It is their planning that represents the longest and most complicated phase. From the moment of a work’s conception to its awarding, before a tender is actually launched, in Italy, it normally takes 10-15 years. With these times, we cannot carry out the provisions set out in the PNRR. And above all, we will not be able to give Italy the stimulus it really needs now. It is our duty, then, to invent our industry's and Italy's future. Now, we have the opportunity. And we can do it."

Salini then continued by saying, “we must consider that the PNRR provides for limited resources. We must mobilize all available resources, including private ones, which amount to the record figure of €1,800 billion, blocked in bank deposits. To do this, we must build confidence in the future. We must all roll up our sleeves and do our part. We must regain the momentum that existed during Italy’s 50s, rebuilding a country, which was already devastated before the pandemic broke out. We have already spent almost €200 billion on support: A sum that is currently blocked on current accounts, due to the negative expectations of the market and households. The Italian State must make an enormous effort to create a new climate of trust, mobilizing these resources. Consider that €200 billion for potential investments in urban regeneration projects can create 1.5 million jobs ".

“In terms of priority for infrastructural investments", Pietro Salini concluded, "Italy has invested very little in the sector, over the past 10 years. We must firstly, therefore, act through short-term interventions, starting with maintenance. The technical life of the concrete works built in the 50s has, in fact, been largely exceeded. We must invest in sustainable mobility, creating efficient metro networks, while avoiding private urban travel. If Genoa and Milan were already joined, today, by the high-speed railway, which Webuild is building now, we could travel between these two cities in just 40 minutes. To achieve this, though, it is necessary to count, not on special laws, but on a continuous and collective inspiration, and European legislation, just as we did for the Genoa San Giorgio Bridge, and all this is possible now. This has already happened in the past, if we just think for a moment at the Autostrada del Sole, which was built in just 7 years, despite it crossing the whole of Italy.”