Training and experience in companies and with all other players to create professionals needed to execute PNRR

Milan, October 21, 2021 – “Italy is living a unique moment, with the PNRR (National Plan of Recovery and Resilience) and other related recovery plans. But the real challenge is to build the infrastructure projects within the allotted timeframe whilst guaranteeing safety both during the construction phase and once they are put into operation. And our reactiveness has to be directly related to the urgent need to radically transform the construction sector. We need to simplify bureaucracy, improve the public tender process, solve issues related to company liquidity by improving how advance payments are made with adequate mechanisms that can revise prices. We also need to sort out the constraints of the system behind the issue of guarantees. The PNRR must also be used as an opportunity to invest in job training, foster a culture of work safety, innovate to protect the environment, improve Italy’s production capacity and create jobs. It must contribute to breaching the gap in technical skills that characterizes our sector today,” said Pietro Salini, Webuild Chief Executive, at “Infrastrutture sostenibili: un bene comune (Sustainable Infrastructure: A Common Good)” hosted by the IMI Corporate & Investment Banking Division of the bank Intesa Sanpaolo. The event was as an opportunity to discuss infrastructure in Italy and the role that the private sector – in light of the PNRR - can have in supporting sustainable and lasting growth in the country.

“The PNNR funds are also a chance to support the training of specialists that our sector needs, to favour innovation and create jobs, guaranteeing safety for everyone at all levels of the supply chain. In order to build the public works that are included in the PNRR,  there is an  estimated need for about 100,000 people. Of this total, 26,000 are specialized profiles that are hard to find in the market at this stage of the relaunch. As a company, we invest to increase digital and technical expertise in the sector, to foster training also by means of scholarships and to bring young people into work. But it needs to be a joint effort. We are ready and willing to support a National Plan for this transformation within the context of a broader public-private collaboration that would involve all the system’s players, including banks,” said Salini.

“Today, Webuild’s commitment to Italy is very strong underpinned by 27 infrastructure projects that provide 11,000 people, directly and indirectly with jobs” Salini continued. “The Genoa Model that was adopted for the construction of the new (Genoa) San Giorgio Bridge proved that when all parties involved work together towards a single objective, the country is able to build innovative public works, safely, on time and without waste. We want to continue to use this extended collaborative approach that includes clients and the entire supply chain. It can improve expertise and investments in sustainability and safety in a sector where these two issues can improve.”

Webuild is a global leader in sustainable infrastructure, active in 50 countries and a track record that includes more than 13,600 kilometres of rail and metro lines, approximately 80,300 kilometres of roads and highways and 946 kilometres of bridges and viaducts. In Italy, it is building some of the most important projects to modernise the country’s transport system, including sections of the high-speed railway between Naples and Bari, the Terzo Valico dei Giovi and Genoa Junction between Milan and Genoa, the Ionian highway in Calabria, and metro lines in Naples, Rome and Milan.