Corigliano-Rossano and Blue Economy: the meeting with Musumeci

“In our vision of government, Corigliano-Rossano, the third largest city in Calabria, will have to conquer, defend and assert all its institutional authority but also its planning capacity with respect to all the major inherited open questions which will still have to see it as a protagonist. Among these, priority will be the strategic and eco-sustainable relaunch of the Port, among the largest infrastructures in the region and in the South and of the historic and important navy of Schiavonea, among the historic and largest in the South”.

This is what he stated Pasqualina Straface speaking at the event entitled Calabria and the economy of the sea. Instruction for usehosted this afternoon (Tuesday 16 April) in the conference room of the Port Authority of Schiavonea and promoted by Assonautica, the Chamber of Commerce, the Province of Cosenza, Coldiretti, Confindustria, the Calabria Region, the University of Calabria, the Bruno Giordano Clean Sea Association , Fim Calabria, University of Calabria – Department of Environmental Engineering (DIAM), by the Municipality of Corigliano – Rossano, by the Majorana Hotel Technical Institute, by the Nautical Institute, by the Port System Authority of Corigliano – Rossano and by the Ipseoa Institute of Cariati.

“We will recognize the centrality of businesses and productive and commercial activities, primarily those of agri-food and small-scale fishing, because it is only if local entrepreneurial initiative is born, functions and develops in a healthy and strong way that the conditions are created and consolidated initiatives, employment and autonomous and lasting local development for all. At the same time and with the same method, combining opportunities for income, growth and environmental sustainability, we will make Corigliano-Rossano and its port one of the most interesting poles of attraction for regional, national and international investments”.

To accompany this path of repositioning and new reputation of the city which is also a seaside city and in which we will commit ourselves to establishing a university faculty of nautical sciences, taking advantage of the extraordinary opportunity of the presence of the Minister for Maritime Policies NelloMusumeci, Straface launched the proposal of nominate Corigliano-Rossano as the seat of a Euro-Mediterranean Forum of the Blue Economy and the historic navies, an idea welcomed with enthusiasm by the Minister who suggested making it a permanent event.

“Because we want to enter as protagonists, together with the national Government, the Port Authority, the Calabria Region and in close consultation with the University of Calabria, both in the debate on the maritime economy which in recent years has recorded over 52 billion euros of added value and 142.7 billion if we consider the entire direct and indirect supply chain, 8.9% of the entire national economy, with 228 thousand companies that employ almost 914 thousand people and with particular increases recorded in services in accommodation and catering (+22.1%), in shipbuilding (+11.7%) and in the fishing industry (+8%); and on the eco-sustainable future of navies which are at very serious risk, if we consider that Italy is the nation most penalized by EU regulations, with a drop in fishing by 40% and with our fishermen among those most affected”.

“As the Government has repeatedly reiterated at the community level, the third largest city in Calabria, with one of the largest fleets in the South, wants to help get everyone out of the fishing versus environment dichotomy and build a sustainable future for the fishing sector; because even the fisherman – concluded Straface – he is a farmer of the sea who guarantees food supply and if the aggression of European rules is aimed at weakening the navies of our territory, people leave this activity which, instead, we too, like the Government, consider central and to which we don’t want to give up.”