ROME, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Friday unveiled a multi-billion-euro 10-year investment plan aimed at stimulating the economy and creating jobs in the country's chronically impoverished southern regions.
Conte presented the plan, called Sud 2030, jointly with Education Minister Lucia Azzolina and Minister for the South Giuseppe Provenzano at a school in the port city of Gioia Tauro in the tip of Italy's boot.
The government is allocating 21 billion euros (22.3 billion U.S. dollars) in public spending in the South between 2020-2022 -- a 65 percent increase compared to 2016-2018, and will leverage and co-finance European Union (EU) funding to bring overall investments to 123 billion euros in 2021-2027, according to the plan described during a press conference posted on Conte's Facebook page.
"This is the first time an (Italian) government commits to a 10-year project for the South," said Conte.
"We want no more toxic narratives for the South -- we want it to become a symbol of ambition and excellence," said Conte.
According to a November 2019 report by the Association for Industrial Development in the South (SVIMEZ), "the demographic crisis and emigration accentuate the gap between the South and the Centre-North".
Italy's southern population "has grown by just 81,000 inhabitants since the beginning of the century, compared to 3.3 million (residents) in the Centre-North," the report said. "The South will lose 5 million inhabitants over the next 50 years."
"We've been overlooking the true emergency of our country, which is the exodus of the new generations," said Provenzano. "Young people must be free to leave but they also must have the opportunity to return and most of all... they must have the right to remain."
The minister pointed out that the plan will reverse a trend that saw public investments in the South decrease from 21 billion euros in 2008 to 10.3 billion euros in 2018.
