More than 20 projects in the field of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) have been selected for a project to be promoted among principal foreign investors.
This was one of the first activities carried out by Leonardo Business Consulting for Toscana Promozione/Invest in Tuscany during the course of the Tuscan ICT sector evaluation project held Friday at Villa Montalto.
The meeting was part of the ''Innovation and Attraction in Tuscany: Scenarios and potential of the ICT sector'' conference; numerous entities were represented including IBM, HP Italy, British Telecom, Iban and 3M.
The project, promoted by the Tuscan region through Toscana Promozione, could bring up to 8 million euro in investments to the region.
Regional superintendent for business, Ambrogio Brenna, stated: ''Our goal is to sustain the enormous potential that the Tuscan ICT sector has in terms of research and development.
''The university and research sectors are fundamental for the growth of the regional and Italian economic system, but they need resources. For this, the attraction of foreign investments covers a decidedly strategic role for the future of our businesses''.
This idea is at the basis of the Invest in Tuscany activities, part of Toscana Promozione dedicated to foreign businesses interested in investing in the region.
In an Italy where research does not have an easy time, Tuscany figures as one of the most avant-garde regions both at the national and European level.
The principal ICT businesses and some of the largest multinationals in the world have invested in the region, initiating collaborations with universities and financing important research projects in the information science field, satellite systems, electronics, applications for cultural activities, video surveillance or robotics.
To understand the level of these investments, we can cite some of the names that have emerged from the research commissioned by Toscana Promozione: Ericson, Microsoft, Nokia, Siemens and Yahoo! Over 100 ICT laboratories are present in the region, 17 highly qualified research centres, 7 university departments active in research and more than 1,000 businesses.
The ICT project is not the only foreign investment attraction programme to carried out by Toscana Promozione.
The agency recently launched another one dedicated to Life Science with the objective of individualizing and selecting the most interesting Tuscan projects to promote and direct towards investors. (source: the Regional Council Information Agency)
