Can Italian infrastructure reboot economy?

ROME: A sleek new bridge in Genoa built in record time is being acclaimed in Italy as a model for rebuilding the economy by investing in major infrastructure projects. Such stimulus is sorely needed as the country slides towards its worst recession since World War II because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The government admits it badly needs to renovate crumbling roads, bridges and railways, and doing so could also save lives. Yet the possible impediments are many-from funding to political will, bureaucracy and a recent safety reports scandal. The completion of the Genoa bridge was hailed as a sign of renewal for Italy, where over 28,000 people have died in the coronavirus pandemic and millions risk losing their jobs due to an economically-crippling nationwide lockdown.

The hi-tech flyover “is a symbol for the whole of Italy. An Italy that can rise again, that will roll up its sleeves, that will not allow itself to be beaten,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said at the unveiling ceremony. As ships in the maritime city’s port sounded their horns to mark the completion, Conte paid homage to the 43 people who plunged to their deaths when the former span, the Morandi flyover, collapsed in 2018.

Other such tragedies could be averted by funding roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and climate change adaptation, which would create jobs and fuel short- and long-term growth.

Almost 750 public works worth 62 billion euros ($68 billion) were on hold at the end of last year, from large bridges to small-town schools, according to Italy’s construction lobby ANCE.

Kick-starting them would create 962,000 jobs, it said. Skeptics wonder where the money will come from-with Italian GDP forecast to contract by between eight and 10 percent this yearand whether the political will exists in a fragile coalition government.—AFP