Innovation: At risk Italy's competitiveness in the hi-tech industry

Italian share in world export under 2% against 9.9% in Germany and 5.3% in France

Italy is ranked as the 15th of the 20 top exporters of hi-tech products in the world, with a market share slightly under 2%, behind smaller players such as the Netherlands (2.6%) and Belgium (2%) at a great distance from Germany (9.9%), France (5.3%) and the United Kingdom (4%). This is what emerges from the study “Italy’s technological competitiveness on a global level: a challenge still open" by the ENEA Observatory on Italy in the International Technology Competition, published in the journal Energia Ambiente e Innovazione(www.enea.it).

The study shows that in the reference period 2000-2016, all the main national high-tech sectors lost ground in terms of market share: the pharmaceutical industry fell from 6.5% to 4.5%, fine chemicals from 3.8% to 3.2%, aerospace from 3.7% to 2.7% while thermomechanical and electrical energy remained stable at 3.4%. The only positive exception was industrial automation which leapt forward from 4.8% to 6.8%.

The problem is the scarce investments in technological innovation of the production system, which affect its competitiveness. "However, the challenge is still open - Daniela Palma and Gaetano Coletta, the ENEA researchers who supervised the report, pointed out - if policies will be implemented to change the structure of the production system, improving the hi-tech supply chain".

The trends of high technology trade confirm a critical scenario: in the period examined, the share of high-tech products in the demand for foreign products was in line with the EU average, while in the total of exports was significantly lower than that of competitors such as Germany and France. Only three sectors of the high-tech field in Italy didn’t record a constant trade deficit: thermomechanical energy, aerospace and industrial automation. For the latter, however, there has been a clear deterioration in recent years. "A warning signal – Palma and Coletta pointed out - especially in relation to the new increase in the overall high technology deficit in the 2015-2016 two-year period".

According to the study, a real improvement in Italy's competitive position in high-tech markets can only be achieved through a reorganization of the production offer, currently still too unbalanced towards traditional sectors, envisaging interventions strengthening the presence of the domestic industry in high-tech supply chains. "Otherwise - Palma and Coletta went on - the strong technological backlog accumulated by our country towards its major European partners is destined only to expand".

At global level, the Report highlights a significant advance of China, a consolidation of the Asian area (which covers almost half of the sector trade) and a strong contraction of the US share, which halved in 2016, reaching values ​​slightly under 10%.

For the unabridged article: http://eai.enea.it/la-rivista

For more information please contact : gaetano.coletta@enea.it e daniela.palma@enea.it