Webuild General Manager Massimo Ferrari: Italy needs right conditions to build key infrastructure to revive economy, create jobs, bring value to communities

Investments and new culture essential for work and infrastructure safety

MILAN, October 4, 2021 - "We have to acknowledge that laws are not sufficient to push ahead on issues such as work safety and the need for a plan to ensure the country's infrastructure is safe. What we need is a new culture and investments made both at the public and private levels. The investments earmarked for infrastructure under the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) and related resources can help with the economic recovery, create employment and bring value to communities. But they must have as their primary objective the safety of workers during the construction of public works and the safety of the users of that same work once completed. The fact that the government is pushing ahead with the construction of projects and the maintenance of existing public work is of course positive, but what we need are decisions at the structural level and coordinated responses to reduce the time it takes to actually start a project that is instead often blocked by complex regulations that make it difficult for companies leading the construction of the project as well as those along the supply chain. An intervention on the liquidity of companies is required as well as a revised system of guarantees. We alson eed to correct the mechanism for price revisions in order to address the rise in the cost of raw materials," said Massimo Ferrari, General Manager Corporate and Finance of Webuild at the "Next Generation Italia, la ripresa e le opportunità per i territori (Next Generation Italia: Recovery and Opportunity for Communities)," hosted by Class Editori-CNBC to foster an exchange of ideas among business leaders, institutional representatives, economists and professionals on the commitments taken under the PNRR and the effect that it will have on the country's communities.
"The pandemic brought forth the problems that are endemic to our sector, which are often tied to costly and halting bureaucracy," Ferrari added. "The experience we had with the new San Giorgio Bridge has positively shown how these obstacles can be overcome. The Genoa Model allowed us to compete a public work - sustainable and avant-garde - within a timeframe that was coherent with the objectives of the project itself. It was a virtuous model that we are applying to other important projects. It shows how the key to success is to have the public and private sectors share the same goals."
"I am sure that the PNRR will have a bigger impact in the south, being a region where investments in infrastructure have been limited in the last few decades. But the opportunities for economic growth and employment that will come from them will have an effect at national level," he said. "Today, Webuild's commitment to the south (of Italy) is very strong: we have 10 construction sites that are already active and another five that are ready to start. We are talking about the involvement of 11,000 people - directly and indirectly - and 1,700 suppliers that have received contracts for a combined value of €950 million. In general terms, about 100,000 people will be needed to build the projects included in the PNRR, of which 26,000 specialised professionals who are often hard to find in the labour market."
"Human resources will be a key element to execute the programme," added Ferrari. "At Webuild, we are looking at mechanisms to put us at the service of the country by training professionals that are needed on work sites, or public administration officials - wherever necessary, making available the expertise of our managers. We want to support this kind of training. We are working on scholarships for young engineers and research projects with universities."
Webuild, a reference player in the construction sector at the global level, is among the companies most committed to sustainable mobility, with a global footprint in 50 countries and a track record that includes 80,300 kilometres of roads and highways, and 946 kilometres of bridges and viaducts. In Italy, it is modernising transport systems, including sections of the high-speed railway between Naples and Bari, Verona and Padua, the Terzo Valico dei Giovi-Nodo di Genova, the Ionian highway in Calabria, and the new metro lines in Milan, Rome and Naples.