Page 17 - Investing in Bergamo EN

4

ENTREPRENEURSHIP, DISTRICTS,
SUPPLY CHAINS

For every hundred inhabitants, there are 8 active businesses, of which one very small
manufacturing company of 4 and 5 employees. These numbers are high by international
standards, but reflect the Italian development model. During the crisis, the number of
businesses decreased only due to an increase in mortality, since the number of new
entrepreneurs remained constant.
The high propensity for entrepreneurship takes on meaning when looking at
corporations that have a higher density in Bergamo (1.2 every 1000 inhabitants).
This dimensional structure of businesses does not differ significantly from the average:
small manufacturing companies (up to 9 employees are 7.5 points less than Italy).
Conversely, Bergamo is the leader in Italy of companies with over 20 employees
and in particular between 20 and 250 employees: it is a land of small structured
businesses with a high density of medium-sized industries.
To explain this characteristic of entrepreneurship, it is necessary to start from the
districts. Up to forty years ago, the economy of Bergamo was mainly represented
by several large companies surrounded by specialised districts (textile-clothing,
construction and machining). The average business represents the evolution of districts
that have allowed the emergence of one of more business leaders capable of enhancing
the specialisation without the limit of a dimension that makes a medium-term strategy
impossible and, above all, that limits the potential for development deriving from exports.
The internationalisation of larger industries has steered other production companies
towards larger markets, which are becoming more and more qualified to perform
subcontracted work or which are carving out niches of specialisation.
The district has become a cluster where the concentration of the “ability to make” is
integrated with the construction of complete supply chains. In the last few years, the
offer of technological and engineering services in areas of manufacturing specialisation
has grown at a double-digit rate.
As for the metalworking industry as a whole, in 2015 ISTAT published a study showing
that Bergamo and its hinterland made up the largest and most elaborate mechanical
district in Italy (123 municipalities, 800,000 inhabitants, almost 100,000 jobs) among
the 143 surveyed in Italy.
The organisation of this manufacturing model provides, on average, an 80% or
greater probability of finding a subcontractor nearby in all the main industrial
production chains. This statistical indicator (formulated by Confindustria Bergamo on
2011 census data) reveals that Bergamo is the most well-supplied area in Italy, with a
widespread offer of products, tailor-made productions and specialised subcontractors.