Rome, Sept. 21, 2022 – "There is an increasingly urgent need to improve the quality of infrastructure. Even more so, after the shocks of the pandemic and the war, and the accelerating trends like digitilization and ecological transition. The global push to invest in the sector is strong. Notwithstanding this, there is a need to overcome the investment gap by incentivizing private and long-term interventions. We must, in fact, provide financing instruments that can reduce the perceived risk of infrastructural investments, while also increasing their appeal to the capital market by attracting resources from private individuals” said Webuild Chairman Donato Iacovone at the Think Tank "Insieme per la Giornata Internazionale della Pace" ("Together for the International Day of Peace,") sponsored by Remind, as part of the panel devoted to "Investimenti in economia reale, immobiliare, infrastrutture, cultura e turismo" (Investment in Real Economy, Real Estate, Infrastructure, Culture and Tourism).

"Italy is the EU country that will invest the most in absolute terms in sustainable mobility infrastructure in the forthcoming years," Iacovone continued. "The PNRR is a unique opportunity for Italy. It must become a permanent tool to finance the infrastructure and technology investments Italy needs to face the future. The country, through PNRR and other funds, will benefit from 100 billion euros to invest in its infrastructural development over the next decade, with projects that will boost high-speed rail and TEN-T corridors, while narrowing the existing gap between the north and south of Italy: infrastructure that will modernize Italy, while also helping to create wealth and prosperity." 

"For the 2022-23 two-year period alone, 16 billion euros of additional investment in major works funded by the PNRR is expected in Italy, with 2.7 billion referring to tenders that are already underway. Of the 27 projects currently under construction by Webuild, 10 of these are funded by the PNRR. We are talking about 7 billion euros for works like the Verona-Padova and Naples-Bari high-speed lines, the Milan-Genoa high-speed/high-capacity line and the Catania-Messina high-capacity line. These impressive numbers can provide us with an idea of the anti-recessionary power of these fund allocations."