Promoting investment

Emilia-Romagna is a region open to new foreign investments. Businesses will find here valuable opportunities and advantages, enabling them to innovate and grow in a highly specialised economic system, with easy access to international markets, a broad ecosystem of suppliers/customers and skilled human resources. A region whose development model has been able to combine economic competitiveness with a high level of social cohesion and an enviable quality of life.

Invest in Emilia-Romagna is the contact point for foreign investors (investinemiliaromagna@art-er.it) operated by the consortium ART-ER - Attractiveness Research Territory, on behalf of the Emilia-Romagna Region, providing tailored information and a wide range of services free of charge:

Support for incentives

• Support for completing the ‘Agreement for the Settlement and Development of Companies’ (Regional Law for Investment Promotion no. 14/2014)
• Support for national incentives

Image building

• Tools and context analyses for investment promotion
• Pre-investment information and support for the business set-up process.

Networking

• Local and international business networking
• Collaboration with actors and institutions at national, regional and local level

Support in location scouting

Aftercare

Besides the contact point, several tools are available online for the investor.

The website Invest in Emilia-Romagna offers a representation of the regional territory and socio-economic system, highlighting strengths and competitive advantages and providing facts and figures, information on main assets and services and updates on news, events and success stories.
Contents include: main key sectors and specializations, transport and digital infrastructures, innovation and education system, internationalization and foreign trade, incentives, business services, trade exhibitions and much more. Specific tools to support the investor are also available: information sheets on the regional key sectors (mechanical engineering, agrifood, health and wellbeing, building and construction, fashion, culture and creativity, green economy), promotional brochures (e.g. "Emilia-Romagna - The new Italy") and country focus.

Invest in Emilia-Romagna Real Estate is the website dedicated to strategic real estate opportunities on the regional territory, also managed by ART-ER on behalf of the Emilia-Romagna Region and in collaboration with local territorial entities. The service – complemented by the Invest in Emilia-Romagna website - provides interactive maps and search filters to identify the properties that suit the requirements of the investment, with detailed information for each opportunity. Territorial context description is also available for each province, with information ranging from real estate market trends to demographic data, with a focus on the main territorial assets with respect to the socio-economic context, main attractions, services, specializations and top companies.

Emilia-Romagna is one of the most advanced and competitive European regions. Here are just some of the main reasons to invest here.

A REGION OF WELLBEING

• BEAUTY: plenty of UNESCO Sites, top Lonely Planet European destination in 2018
• INCLUSION: lower social exclusion rate than in Italy and Europe
• QUALITY OF LIFE: higher employment and GDP per capita than in Italy and Europe; strong cultural offer

A WELL CONNECTED REGION

• TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURES in strategic position connecting Northern Europe and Mediterranean area
• DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURES: 1st Italian region according to the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI)

A REGION OF KNOWLEDGE AND RESEARCH

• EDUCATION: oldest University in Western Europe strongly oriented towards Industry 4.0 and innovation
• RESEARCH AND INNOVATION: 1st in Italy for intramural expenditure in R&D per inhabitant
• INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM: with a unique High Technology Network integrated in Clusters and Technopoles
• BIG DATA VALLEY: a top world hub for supercomputers and data centres

A SUSTAINABLE REGION

• 6,600 companies in green economy sectors (2019)

A COMPETITIVE AND INTERNATIONAL REGION

• ECONOMY: strong manufacturing sector with 25.6% of total employees, being 19.9% the Italian average and 15.4% the European one
• INTERNATIONALISATION: 1st Italian region for export per capita
• ATTRACTIVENESS: open region with strong incentives for new investments   

A REGION OF EXCELLENCES

• Global leader in industrial machinery (e.g. packaging) and ceramics, boasting the top world Motor and Food Valleys, growing more and more in Wellness and home of successful creative brands

For more information: investinemiliaromagna@art-er.it