Italy: Rome looks to set up National Sovereign Fund

Rome: Italy’s National Sovereign Fund is inbound. Enterprise Minister Adolfo Urso anticipated that on Thursday, he’ll kick-start the legislative process to set up a national wealth fund to protect and strengthen the nation’s key supply chains and foster the ties between education and Italy’s key industries.

According to Il Sole 24 Ore, the goal is to mobilise roughly €1 billion. Funds are to be sourced from State lender CDP and possibly the social security funds for professionals.

The Fund will also serve to channel financial interventions from pension funds, the Italian insurance system, and other public and private players at a later stage.

Think energy and critical raw materials. The new Fund will invest on market terms in two types of enterprises, namely those defined as having “high potential” and those that, owing to their “systemic relevance,” can generate hefty “positive externalities for the country” and “reduce the costs of coordination between supply chain actors”.

The goal is to equip companies with new resources so as to make the procurement of critical raw materials – those underpinning the ecological transition – easier. The same applies to energy purchases.

Looping high schools into the local economy. Minister Urso also announced his intention to establish so-called “Made in Italy high schools,” which would be linked to Italy’s main industrial districts. The idea is to foster the spread of skills necessary for the growth of Italian businesses through a new kind of secondary academic institution.

This initiative, to be carried out alongside regional governments, could bring about the new courses as early as the 2024/2025 school year in all the main Italian industrial districts.

Such classes would take into account the local productive activities and enable faster access to work for young people.