Sace, an Italian insurance-financial group directly controlled by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and specialised in supporting businesses and the national economic fabric, presented the new 'Let's Grow!' study, which identified 100 billion euros in opportunities for Italian company growth in 2025. We must focus on two levers: innovation, which makes businesses more agile and competitive, and exports, which provide new opportunities for Italian products in high-growth regions. Together, they increase turnover by over four percentage points and reinforce one another. Italy currently leads in exports but not in innovation.
In summary, 15 billion of the 100 billion are additional yearly investments in innovation required to raise Italy's innovation intensity to the level of the eurozone, where business R&D expenditure is 1.5 percent of GDP (compared to Italy's current 0.8%). Today, one in every three Italian enterprises invests in technology and digital innovation, but we need to do more. Every firm that invests in innovation increases its turnover growth by two percentage points as compared to companies who do not invest. Textiles and clothes, wood and furniture, food and drinks, and paper and printing are among the sectors with the greatest opportunity for intervention, while the space and blue economy and the circular economy, in which Italy excels, are frontier areas.
Another 85 billion prospects exist for exports, which, according to Sace, will return to 3% growth after two years of continuous record levels of 625 billion euros. While national exports are particularly affected by the slowdown in our first trading partner, Germany, where we export primarily mechanics, automotive, and chemicals, all of which are heavily integrated into German value chains, growth is more pronounced in Asean countries, where exports have increased by 10.3 percent, with Vietnam up by 25%. Saudi Arabia (+28%), the United Arab Emirates (+20), Serbia (+16), Mexico, and Brazil (+8) all had excellent results.