Italy to unveil recovery plan worth 221b euros centered on investment

Italy is set to give the green light to a restructuring plan that will include massive investments in high-speed rail, green energy, and the digitalization of government services.

The plan, which the country's new prime minister, Mario Draghi, hopes will breathe life into an economy in its deepest recession since World War II, will cost 221 billion euros ($307 billion), the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The paper said it is expected to be officially unveiled next week.

Draghi, who has been prime minister of a unity government since Feb 13 and who was president of the European Central Bank from 2011 to 2019, reportedly favors a "radical restructuring of Italy's economy" to help it bounce back from economic devastation caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Financial Times said the overhaul will draw heavily on the European Union's 750-billion-euro pandemic recovery fund, which is largely aimed at redirecting money from wealthier less-impacted EU nations toward hardhit Italy and Spain.

The Telegraph newspaper said Italy suffered an 8.9 percent fall in GDP last year because of the pandemic, making it one of Europe's major virus victims.

Italy's Confindustria business lobbying group said, without a recovery package, the economy was predicted to rebound slowly this year, and was not expected to be behaving normally until the end of 2022.

Draghi, who was governor of the Bank of Italy between 2006 and 2011, will seek his Cabinet's approval of the plan in the coming days, and then ask for the backing of Parliament next week.

The overhaul will reportedly be paid for through 30 billion euros of Italian budgetary resources and 191.5 billion euros of EU loans and grants, unnamed sources told the Financial Times.

After several years of political division in Italy and months of economic freefall, Vincenzo Amendola, Italy's minister for European affairs, recently told the New York Times newspaper that Draghi is exactly the sort of leader the nation and the EU now needs.

"The difference is that everybody, when Mario Draghi speaks, knows that he is not just pushing, boosting the Italian interest," Amendola said. "You need stable leaders who bring confidence."

If Draghi's Cabinet supports his recovery plan, which the Bloomberg business news service said is detailed within a 200-page report that includes 500 charts, he will require the support of lawmakers before taking it to the EU for its approval.

The plan is also understood to call for more investment in the nation's electricity grid, new hydrogen power projects, and public buildings being made energy-efficient.

Draghi is also understood to want to overhaul Italy's outdated and slow legal system, and to be targeting a cutting of the red tape in place in some local regions that he believes is hindering growth.

意大利将批准一项重组计划，该计划将包括对高速铁路、绿色能源和政府服务数字化的大规模投资。

据英国《金融时报》周四报道，该国新任总理马里奥·德拉吉(Mario Draghi)希望该计划能为处于二战以来最严重衰退中的经济注入活力，该计划将耗资2210亿欧元(合3070亿美元)。

该报称，预计将于下周正式公布。

德拉吉自2月13日以来一直担任联合政府总理，并在2011年至2019年担任欧洲央行(European Central Bank)行长。据报道，德拉吉支持“意大利经济的激进重组”，以帮助意大利从新型冠状病毒大流行造成的经济破坏中复苏。

英国《金融时报》表示，此次改革将大量利用欧盟7500亿欧元的大流行恢复基金，该基金主要旨在将资金从受影响较轻的富裕欧盟国家转移到受影响较重的意大利和西班牙。

《每日电讯报》称，去年意大利国内生产总值因流感大流行下降了8.9%，成为欧洲主要的病毒受害者之一。

意大利工业联合会(Confindustria)商业游说团体表示，如果没有复苏计划，预计今年经济将缓慢反弹，预计要到2022年底才会表现正常。

德拉吉曾在2006年至2011年期间担任意大利银行行长，他将在未来几天寻求内阁对该计划的批准，然后在下周寻求议会的支持。

据未透露姓名的消息人士告诉英国《金融时报》，据报道，此次改革将通过300亿欧元的意大利预算资源和1915亿欧元的欧盟贷款和赠款来支付。

在意大利经历了几年的政治分裂和几个月的经济自由落体后，意大利欧洲事务部长文森佐·阿门多拉最近告诉《纽约时报》，德拉吉正是这个国家和欧盟现在需要的那种领导人。

阿蒙多拉说:“不同的是，当马里奥·德拉吉讲话时，每个人都知道他不仅仅是在推动，而是在提高意大利人的兴趣。”。“你需要稳定的领导者，他们会带来信心。”

如果德拉吉的内阁支持他的复苏计划，他将需要立法者的支持，然后才能将其提交欧盟批准。彭博社(Bloomberg business news service)表示，他的复苏计划在一份200页的报告中有详细说明，其中包括500张图表。

该计划还被理解为呼吁对国家电网、新的氢能项目和节能公共建筑进行更多投资。

据悉，德拉吉还希望改革意大利过时且缓慢的法律体系，并致力于削减一些地方的繁文缛节，他认为这些繁文缛节阻碍了经济增长。