The digital market of Emilia-Romagna is worth more than 6 billion euros. And, despite the emergency caused by the flood and the increase in raw material costs, in 2023 it grew by 2.6 percent compared to the previous year. The photograph is from the report ‘Digital in Emilia-Romagna 2024’, created by Anitec-Assinform and Confindustria Emilia-Romagna and presented yesterday at the Bologna Business School of the Alma Mater. The report takes stock of the spread of the digital economy in the region, focusing on ICT (Information and communication technologies) services, digital content and advertising, software and consultancy. There are 13 thousand ICT companies active in the area and, of these, 500 are innovative start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises in the region. The balance sheet of the sector which sees many lights (and positive numbers), however, also records some shadows. Precisely in relation to start-ups and innovative companies, the survey highlights low development, disparities in the advancement of digitalisation at a territorial level, an incomplete ability to exploit the process of transferring innovation from research to companies, a poorly managed managerial culture inclined towards innovation and the lack of advanced professionalism.
“Companies in Emilia-Romagna are engaged in important digital transformation processes: according to our survey, in 2023 55% invested in ICT and 58% in training. To make a real leap in quality we must work together, companies, institutions and many innovation players, to simplify the system, make it more accessible to companies and more transversal”, underlines the regional president of Confindustria, Annalisa Sassi. “A positive figure emerges from the report, but – she admits – there is still a lot of potential to be expressed.” Marco Gay, president of Anitc-Assinform, the Confindustria association that brings together the main ICT companies, explains that “the growth trend of Italian digital has continued since 2016 with a percentage that stands at 3.5% year on year and by 2026 it will be 90 billion euros.” In this scenario, “Emilia-Romagna follows the trend with investments, an important and credible ICT sector and with the attention necessary to take up this challenge and turn it into an opportunity which is the investment in skills”, recognizes Gay.
“Emilia-Romagna manages to be one of the most resilient places in the world. Despite the tragedies that have struck us in these ten years, first the earthquake, then the pandemic, finally the flood, this is a region that continues to grow and has among the highest levels of export competitiveness, tourist attractiveness and foreign investment in Europe”, claims the governor of Emilia-Romagna Stefano Bonaccini. Which does not fail to remember the value of the Tecnopolo. “Being the most important European data valley, among the first in the world, will give us an extraordinary competitive advantage. It is no coincidence that the government will bring the G7 on digital and new technologies to the Tecnopolo in Bologna. We will have the world’s spotlight about us. There is a desire to come and invest in this land and this can give competitiveness to our businesses and our universities”, concludes Bonaccini.
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