Measures

What are they?

Development Contracts provide incentives towards significant investments to improve the country's industry, particularly in the south.

Development Contracts are managed by theAgenzia nazionale per l'attrazione degli investimenti e lo sviluppo d'impresa S.p.A. - Invitalia(National Agency for the attraction of investments and business development) which operates by following the directives of MiSE.Invitaliais also monitored and under the control of MiSE.

Programme

Initiatives relating to the areas listed below can access the programme incentives:

• industrial;
• tourism;
• commercial;
• manufacturing and trade of agricultural products.

Beneficiaries

The following may benefit from the programme incentives:

a) Italian and foreign large, medium and small enterprises promoting investment projects relating to the areas stated in Art. No. 87(3)(a)(c) of the EU Treaty;

b) Italian and foreign SMEs promoting investment projects relating to areas different from those stated in Art. No. 87(3)(a)(c) of the EU Treaty; if the investment projects promoted in these areas relate to manufacturing and trade of agricultural products, large enterprises (up to 750 employees and/or a turnover up to € 200 million) may also benefit from the incentives.

Eligible expenses and admissible costs for incentives

Admissible costs for investment projects must relate to buying and/or building the fixed assets necessary for the achievement of the project objectives. These expenses may relate to:

• enterprise land and its preparation;
• masonry and similar activities;
• specific enterprise infrastructure;
• brand new machinery, installations and equipment;
• suitable IT programs for the production and management of the enterprise, patents, licences, know-how and unpatented technical knowledge relating to new product technologies and production processes.

With regard to industrial research activities and experimental development, the following costs may qualify for the incentives, in proportion to the activity undertaken:

• expenses linked to personnel, limited to researchers, technicians and other auxiliary personnel engaged in research and development projects, with the exclusion of administrative, accounting and commercial personnel;
• expenses linked to brand new tools and equipment;
• consultancy and other services used for the project;
• general expenses linked to the research and development project;
• expenses linked to the materials used for the research and development project.

Financial resources, modalities and amount of incentives

Incentives may be provided under the following forms, including combinations:

• contribution towards installation investments;
• contribution towards expenditure;
• subsidised loans;
• interest-rate subsidy.

Provision of incentives

The modalities for the incentives provided through the Development Contract are stated in the Development Contract.