Volume 1

This book is the final report of an in-depth study of made-in-Italy products and the outlook for its manufacturers, which was carried out by Edison (formerly Montedison) and CRANEC at the Catholic University. The industrial sectors that manufacture those products that are synonymous with Italian industry - fashion, home furniture and furnishing, Mediterranean-diet food products, and traditional mechanical engineering components - are largely responsible for enabling Italy to post the world's third largest trade balance surplus, after Japan and Germany, during the second half of the nineties. Without the trade surplus provided by made-in-Italy products, Italy would have been unable to offset the deficit it generated in raw materials, energy, chemicals and electronics. The backbone of the system that manufactures made-in-Italy products, provides two thirds of the industrial jobs in Italy, consists of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises and over 200 industrial districts. The companies that operate in these districts, which account for significant shares of the world markets in their respective industries, must innovate their manufacturing process, products and marketing programs sufficiently to strengthen their organisation and meet the challenge of the new millennium. For its part, the overall national economic system must evolve in a fashion that will enable these enterprises to operate effectively by reducing the cost and inefficiencies inherent in Italy's bureaucracy and in its energy, telecommunications and transportation markets by deploying incisive deregulation policies.