Undersecretary Manlio Di Stefano spoke this afternoon at the 84th Fiera del Levante in Bari on “The value of the aerospace sector for the country and the repercussions on the Apulia economic system”.
“Today, aerospace must be reconnected to the difficult times we are going through,” the Undersecretary began. “This is a crucial sector with an extremely high technological content that represents absolute excellence of our industrial capabilities. In Italy, space and aerospace sector generates 12 billion euros (0.7% of GDP) per year. It employs 36,000 people, with a return of up to 7 euros for every euro invested and an export propensity of 70%”.
“We are proud – continued Di Stefano – that Italy is one of the seven countries in the world capable of putting satellites into orbit and one of the few countries in the world to have space and aerospace sector characterised by a complete supply chain of systems, products and services, which gives us significant strategic autonomy”.
“In our vision,” added the Undersecretary, “it is fundamental to create regional value chains of excellence such as Apulia, which has managed to carve out a leading role for itself in the space sector in Italy. The Government supports districts of this type and intends to promote them also with the tax relief for the South that we recently announced”.
On Simonetta Di Pippo’s recent candidacy as Director-General of the European Space Agency (ESA), the Undersecretary said: “She would be the first woman to head ESA, but we are above all proud of her outstanding curriculum vitae”.
“The Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are in the front line because space and aerospace are increasingly leading sectors of our economy. They have a significant impact in terms of international projection”, concluded Di Stefano.
