Discover and invest in Basilicata. Situated in the ankle of Italy’s boot, stretching from Tyrrhenian sea to the Ionic coast, Basilicata lies in the center of one of the most economically vital areas of Southern Italy. Throughout the 1990’s and into the early 2000’s, Basilicata experienced a phase of strong economic growth, and with it unprecedented momentum and international visibility. Basilicata’s unique combination of natural and historic resources, and knowledge intensive economic activities that have emerged over the last twenty years, form an important patrimony today. The region also benefits from a base of enterprises and talented professionals who regard its natural and urban environments as resources to preserve and opportunities for continued investment.
A bridge to talent and investment Having reduced its per capita income gap with the European average, Basilicata is now giving precedence, thanks to a final tranche of Community funds, to projects with a strong component of research and innovation, in order to facilitate national and international investment attraction.
The new economic mosaic Earth observation. Between Potenza and Matera, the two main cities of the region, lies a cluster specialized in earth observation and space robotics. A network of enterprises, research centers and university departments are dedicated to satellite technologies, environmental monitoring, seismic research, and the prediction and attenuation of risks related to natural disasters. Biotechnology and alternative energies. Research centers for green biotechnology and alternative energies, located in Metapontino and the Basento valley, stand among emerging sectors with strong research and innovation content. Agri-food. Agricultural and food production is still important to Basilicata, especially in the southern area of Metapontino and the northern area of Vulture, home to Aglianco, a wine that, largely thanks to producer innovation, has achieved international recognition. Oil and gas extraction. Europe’s largest onshore fossil fuel reserves are concentrated in the Val d’Agri. Major oil companies, led by Eni, Total, Shell and Exxon, are working on extraction, which is yielding royalties, research, and new initiatives aimed at reducing dependency on petroleum. Furniture manufacturing. Even the furniture-manufacturing district, an international export sector that has grown between Basilicata and Apulia, is looking toward environmentally sustainable new products as a means of facing global competition and the current economic crisis. Even in this sector, activities based on design, knowledge, creativity and sustainability are continuously growing in importance. Historical and cultural patrimony: an economic resource. The Sassi of Matera, an UNESCO world heritage site, represents not only a fascinating historic neighborhood that has been revitalized, but also an international cultural tourist attraction and a location of great interest for the film industry. And many towns and villages of Basilicata are, in the words of director Francis Ford Coppola, the archetype of a landscape that seen from the sky still appears like “the earth as it should have been.” Strong public investment went into creating the Pollino National Park, one of Europe’s largest nature reserves and, beginning in 2009, seat of ArtePollino, one the continent’s most original contemporary art exhibitions. We are convinced that even these investments help to attract advanced companies and to build a contemporary economy in harmony with the environment. Basilicata’s new economic base springs from this mosaic, and thanks to these achievements, the region today is fertile terrain for the development and arrival of new investment and capital. Most of all, Basilicata is an inimitable economic, urban and natural habitat that can welcome and cultivate the “resource” most important to territories and enterprises: people, with their baggage of ideas, skills and experiences, and their desire to live in cities and regions of human scale.
People. The most important resource.
Inside a great urban region. Basilicata’s main cities, Potenza and Matera, where lively musical, cultural, artistic scenes flourish, lie amidst one of the most dynamic urban and economic systems in Southern Italy. Whoever approaches Basilicata may be surprised at how well connected it is to the main centers of Europe and the Mediterranean despite its peripheral geographic location. The Bari international airport can be reached from Matera in 45 minutes, for example. The Bari airport is among Italy’s fastest growing in terms of passengers and new routes toward the rest of Italy, Northern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
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