(ANSA) - ROME - Twenty two urban duty free zones in large, medium and small cities, in eleven regions will be given incentives, tax relief, and social security deductions amounting to 50 million euros a year for new economic activities, especially small businesses founded in 2009. The initiative is the result of selections made by the Ministry for Economic Development’s Department for Development Policy. ''With the start of the urban duty free zones'', commented Minister Claudio Scajola in a statement, ''we are giving an important answer to the socio-economic hardship in the areas that have a high rate of unemployment. The incentives and the facilitations foreseen for the areas, which have already been successful in France and are authorized by the EU, will support the creation of new enterprises and are part of the new regulatory instrument to re-start the project for the Mezzogiorno and for other weak areas of the country. We are already working to extend the measure beyond 2009''.
The twenty two urban duty free zones, selected from sixty four proposals are in Catania, Gela, and Erice in Sicily, Crotone, Rossano and Lamezia Terme in Calabria, Matera in Basilicata, Taranto, Lecce and Andria in Puglia, Naples, Torre Annunziata and Mondragone in Campania, Campobasso in Molise, Cagliari, Quartu Sant' Elena and Iglesias in Sardinia, Velletri and Sora in Lazio, Pescara in Abruzzo, Massa Carrara in Tuscany and Ventimiglia in Liguria. The regulations for the area will be evaluated by the CIPE, after which the European Commission will be notified. The incentives and facilitations should be definitively allocated by next spring.
October 6