Rice or wine. But also life sciences, packaging and instrumental mechanics, vision systems 4.0. and microelectronics. If defining a territory as suspended between tradition and innovation always seems a little obvious, in describing Pavia it is perhaps a compulsory path.
An opportunity to reflect on the vocations of the province is the start of the process after the appointment of Pavia as Capital of Corporate Culture 2023, a Confindustria event for the promotion of local economies with a strong industrial vocation. Undisputed in the past and today to be relaunched, taking into account a per capita industrial added value which is the lowest among the Lombard provinces, as well as an export which only now, after the 2022 leap, has returned to over 4 billion in line with what happened in 2013, the year in which Pavia surpassed in value in Lombardy not only Sondrio, as happens today, but also Cremona, Lecco and Lodi.
Willingness to reverse the trend clearly present in the strategic plan launched by Assolombarda, with the appointment as Capital of Corporate Culture 2023 by Confindustria to represent a further element. An opportunity to develop projects shared between the public and private sectors, take up challenges, implement ideas and put all the positive forces of change, sustainability, renewal and culture into a system around Assolombarda.
Willingness to reverse the trend clearly present in the strategic plan launched by Assolombarda, with the appointment as Capital of Corporate Culture 2023 by Confindustria to represent a further element. An opportunity to develop projects shared between the public and private sectors, take up challenges, implement ideas and put all the positive forces of change, sustainability, renewal and culture into a system around Assolombarda.
«The Pavia area - explains the president of Assolombarda Alessandro Spada in the inaugural event at the University of Pavia - is an integral part of that area completed by Milan, Monza Brianza and Lodi which is the country's locomotive thanks to the decisive contribution of its production system capable of creating value for the community. Indeed, here companies have values capable of linking productivity and social inclusion, competitiveness and sustainability, generating positive change and attracting talent. It is a spirit that is part of the DNA of our companies, essential for keeping together and promoting the development of a province, such as Pavese, which boasts mechatronics as well as agri-food, packaging, healthcare, mechanical -footwear and digital and is specializing more and more in microelectronics. We are therefore convinced that the enhancement of this corporate culture and its vocations, the heart of this event, represents a further stimulus to the growth of the whole territory».
The name of the project, Supernova, is significant. Which on the one hand recalls the iconic 1954 Necchi sewing machine still exhibited today at the Moma in New York, on the other it evokes the explosion of a star, the inaugural moment of something unexpected, unpredictable. The hope therefore of a new start.
«What seemed like a lost past - comments the president of the Lombardy region Attilio Fontana - is instead returning with great strength, there is a new ferment that is bringing Pavia back to the top. Also because here we find the practical combination of know-how and the formation of human capital, through universities and research centres».
Non-trivial numbers, those that the territory can exhibit from this point of view, with over 4 thousand researchers and teachers, 26 thousand students, 70 start-ups, a university city of applied knowledge - recalled the rector of the University of Pavia Francesco Quick - which represents a winning asset of the area.
«The corporate culture - adds Nicola de Cardenas, President of the Pavia branch of Assolombarda - is vital and indispensable for the relaunch of the territory. We must rediscover, nurture and support the corporate culture to open a new season of economic recovery for this province, which has so many resources to exploit. The time has come for the territory to show its courage and look to the future with confidence, to use history not as a nostalgic justification but as a drive to equal and surpass the past, the time has come to dare, more, at best».
The goal is to pivot on the many existing excellences, including technological ones: from the Eni supercomputer of Sannazzaro to the synchrotron of the National Center for Oncological Adrotherapy, to the microelectronics district developed around the skills of the University of Pavia, one of the oldest in the world, district capable of attracting numerous multinationals to the area as well as creating the conditions for the birth of start-ups.
The aim is thus to systematize and maximize synergies with Milan, as well as to enhance the University of Pavia, the University Institute of Higher Studies, the three Institutes of Hospitalization and Treatment of a Scientific Character, the 5 Colleges of Merit and the Research institutes. Entities that have joined together in a process of sharing skills, planning, best practices, aspirations, to create a local ecosystem of innovation and knowledge.
