L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano S omething interest- i n g h a p p e n e d when Deutsche Bank asked 1,200 executives outside Europe where they expected to put their money next: Italy came fourth among European i n v e s t m e n t d e s t i n a t i o n s . According to the bank's Ital- ian release of its 2026 Global Sentiment Survey on Europe, 33 percent of the companies questioned expect to invest in Italy, behind Germany, the United Kingdom and France. The interest demonstrated to be especially strong in places that are hardly Italy's tradi- tional economic backyard: more than half of the respon- dents in the United Arab Emi- rates selected Italy, as did 46 percent in Saudi Arabia and 4 1 p e r c e n t i n t h e U n i t e d States; among Mexican com- panies, Italy was second only to Germany. An important distinction to make is that we are talking about companies rather than financial investors. Deutsche Bank was asking about direct investment, that is, opening an office, buying a local com- pany, establishing distribu- tion, putting research some- where or, eventually, building something. In other words, we are talking about money that arrives with people, leases, suppliers and plans attached to it, and generally with the expectation of staying for years. The survey does not ask executives to explain sepa- rately why they chose Italy, so t h e r e i s n o h o n e s t w a y o f turning the Italian result into a neat list of reasons supplied by Deutsche Bank. What it does tell us, however, is what foreign companies increasing- ly value about Europe as a whole: growth opportunities, i n n o v a t i o n , e c o n o m i c resilience and access to a large and stable market. Seventy- four per cent see Eur ope's growth potential as an advan- tage over other regions, while 71 percent point to innovation and the same share consider the continent resilient in the face of economic and geopo- litical shocks. Italy arrives in that con- versation with some advan- tages of its own. One of them is simply the kind of economy it has; Italy is still a large manufacturing and exporting country, with industrial districts, special- ized suppliers and medium- sized companies embedded in sectors that range from machinery and automotive components to pharmaceuti- cals, food processing, design and advanced manufactur- ing. S&P, when it upgraded Italy's sovereign rating to B B B + i n A p r i l 2 0 2 5 , described the economy as diversified and pointed to resilient exports, strong pri- vate savings and improving household and corporate bal- ance sheets. Italy had also moved from a net external debtor position before the pandemic to a net external creditor position estimated at around 15 percent of GDP by the end of 2024. That does not make headlines in the way a quarterly growth figure d o e s , b u t f o r a c o m p a n y thinking ten or twenty years ahead, it's essential: financial resilience counts. The country has also been changing some of the things for which foreign businesses have traditionally criticized it. The OECD's 2026 survey of Italy says reforms linked to the National Recovery and R e s i l i e n c e P l a n h a v e improved the business envi- ronment through changes to public administration, the justice system, digitalization and regulation, while infra- s t r u c t u r e i n v e s t m e n t h a s accelerated at the same time. By late 2025, close to three- quarters of the NRRP's 575 milestones had been com- pleted and roughly three- quarters of the €194.4 billion available to Italy had been disbursed. The money has gone into transport, energy, digital networks, education and other areas that can alter the conditions under which a company operates quite sig- nificantly. Italy, however, also has a very large number of small businesses, and that pulls d o w n t h e e c o n o m y - w i d e a v e r a g e s ; y e t , t h e O E C D notes that its medium-sized and large firms are about as p r o d u c t i v e a s e q u i v a l e n t companies in other major economies. In other words, an international company looking for suppliers, part- ners or an acquisition is not choosing between "produc- tive Germany" and "unpro- ductive Italy" in quite the way the national numbers can suggest. Inside the Italian e c o n o m y a r e c o m p a n i e s operating at the same level as their European peers; there are simply fewer of them rel- ative to the enormous num- ber of small firms. That helps explain why Italy can be attractive even while some familiar weak- nesses remain: growth is not spectacular, public debt is high, energy is expensive and its notoriously slow bureau- c r a c y h a s c e r t a i n l y n o t become fast all of a sudden. Indeed, Deutsche Bank's own respondents complain about many of those things across Europe, particularly energy and labor costs, taxation and slow permitting, but a com- p a n y c h o o s i n g w h e r e t o e s t a b l i s h i t s e l f d o e s n o t c h o o s e o n o n e m e a s u r e alone, any more than a family chooses a house from the heating bill without looking a t w h e r e t h e h o u s e i s . I t weighs access to customers, infrastructure, suppliers, skills, financial stability and the possibility of expanding from there. On this broader calcula- tion, Italy has become easier to take seriously, if you think, for instance, how its position inside the European Union and eurozone gives a compa- ny access to the Single Mar- ket, and its industrial base offers suppliers and manu- f a c t u r i n g k n o w l e d g e t h a t have taken generations to build. Its exports have proved resilient, and several years of public investment have been a d d r e s s i n g p r e c i s e l y t h e roads, railways, digital sys- tems and administrative bot- tlenecks that foreign busi- n e s s e s n o t i c e w h e n t h e y arrive. P e r h a p s , h o w e v e r , t h e most revealing part in the Deutsche Bank's survey is its g e o g r a p h i c a l b r e a k d o w n , with interest in the Belpaese being particularly high in the Gulf and substantial in the United States, while Mexi- can companies place it sec- ond in Europe. That suggests a n a p p e a l e x t e n d i n g w e l l beyond companies already tied to Italy through neigh- b o r i n g E u r o p e a n s u p p l y chains. It also fits the broader result of the survey: interna- tional executives are more optimistic about Europe than Europeans themselves often appear to be, and companies with direct experience of the continent rate it more highly than companies that have not yet invested there. None of this means that every expression of interest will become a factory or an office: in the end, investment surveys measure plans, and plans can change. But the interesting part is that Italy now sits near the front of the E u r o p e a n g r o u p , a t a moment when international companies are looking again at where they want their next long-term foothold to be. For Italy, being considered is only the beginning, but for a country that spent much of the past two decades being discussed mainly in terms of debt and stagnation, appear- i n g o n a s h o r t l i s t f o r i t s industrial depth and improv- ing business environment is an incredibly strong place to start. FRANCESCA BEZZONE Why foreign companies are looking at Italy again for their next long-term investment Advanced manufacturing is one of the sectors that continues to make Italy attractive to foreign investors; inset, scien- tific research and laboratory work reflect the country's broader base of specialized skills and innovation (Original images created for L'Italo-Americano with the assistance of AI) LIFE PEOPLE REVIEWS ADVICE TRADITIONS

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