From May 24th to 27th, at the navy base in La Spezia, the fifth edition of the Seafuture & Maritime Techno will be taking place, focusing on integrated maritime policy.
The Seafuture & Maritime Technologies is a format realised by La Spezia Eps with the aim to explore all aspects of the integrated maritime policy based on the Blue Growth strategy, as indicate by the European Commission.
The event will be a business platform to share technical knowledge and to allow big players (ship owners, leisure boat builders, foreign navies), to meet the small and medium companies on themes such as blue economy, new technologies, dual-use, refitting and sustainability.
The project was approved by the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of the Defence, and it involves research centres, universities, military infrastructures, such as the dockyards in La Spezia, Taranto and Augusta, shipyards, shipping, ports, and commercial representatives and foreign Marinas.
Export and investment in research and development helped the Italian nautical industry to face the crisis since 2014 and to keep its leadership in the global sector. The crisis, however, left recognisable scars, changing the national sector: the importance of smaller enterprises increased.
Data provided by the annual publication “La Nautica in Cifre” realized by Ucina’s Ufficio Studi together with the Department of Economy at the University of Genoa, show that this particular productive sector relies on a network of PMI (small and medium enterprises) with a large quote of microenterprises. More than a third of the companies has less than 5 employees, while a little bit more than 3% of the companies has more than 100. Three quarters of the companies producing or importing leisure boats and creating accessories or components have no more than 15 employees.
“The naval industry in Italy represents a complex reality including, alongside with yachting, the production of large transport or cruise vessels, which is not essentially concentrated in the biggest companies of the sector, and the satellite activities are remarkable for their strong dynamism – explains Cristiana Pagni, President of La Spezia Eps, the leader company of the Chamber of Commerce of La Spezia, and president of Tecnomar consortium – In this panorama an important development can be the one of the refitting applied to the Defence sector. A much diversified industry where contracts and outsourcing have an ever-growing importance.”
And, about strategies for the future of the sector, Pagni comments: “In a market where the 97% of the economic system depends on the capabilities, skills and quality of the small and medium enterprises, it is necessary to develop aggregation and internationalisation processes to become more and more competitive and to have a stronger importance in the commercial relationships.”
