08/07/2021 - Webuild S.p.A.: Webuild CEO Pietro Salini on TG2 Post TV: Italy must restart in the South and from the young to create employment across the country and support the economic recovery

MILAN, July 8, 2021 - 'We face an enormous challenge, and this challenge is to relaunch the country. It concerns not only putting back together what was damaged by the pandemic, but also creating the new conditions necessary for the country to develop over the long term, which is exactly what happened after the Second World War. Today, the real priority is to create employment throughout Italy, and building infrastructure with a new model of collaboration between the public and private sectors, based on the Genoa model, is the best way to relaunch the country along with the entire supply chain. The companies that make up the sector in Italy represent a system of expertise that is considered among the best in the world, and we must use it to restart the sector and the country,' said Pietro Salini, Chief Executive of Webuild, as guest of the TG2 Post television news programme dedicated to 'Impresa Italia' (Business Italy) on the Rai 2 channel of the public broadcaster. Other guests included Fabio Tamburini, director of the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore , and Gennaro Sangiuliano, director of TG2.

'We have to start again from the south of Italy and with the young. To do so we need trade schools that can breach the gap in technical skills thereby enabling us to return to being competitive at the international level and establish the conditions for the creation of a plan for long-term growth. We are already working with many universities in Italy, such as the University of Genoa, and we are launching bursaries named after (the Group's late chairman) Alberto Giovannini to promote the study of STEM skills among young people, especially women and the young in southern Italy, with ideas of innovation and digitalization for our sector.'

In Italy, there are 7,000 businesses involved with the Group on 20 main projects, and €7.5 billion is the value of the contracts for the supply chain on these 20 projects. In the case of the Genova San Giorgio Bridge, there were 330 businesses for supplies exceeding €160 million in value. Today in the south, the Group has 10 big projects in addition to five other contracts recently won, and on these 10 projects it has a chain of direct suppliers composed of 1,700 companies for contracts worth €950 million.

'This is a historic moment for Italy,' concluded Salini. 'We are finally focalizing activity on our country again, making the most of the acceleration in infrastructure investment favoured by the PNRR (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, or National Recovery and Resilience Plan). We are ready to do our part, to push forward and favour a reciprocal growth for all concerned within the entire production chain.