Puglia offers an incredible mix of ancient crafts, modern manufacturing industries, authentic Italian style and unrivalled quality, with an inborn inclination towards technological innovation, green economy and creative industries.

Aerospace
80 large and small companies.
6,000 researchers and employees.
A 2014 export turnover of 452.9 million euros, +15.3% compared to 2013.
The only Italian region with a fully integrated production chain Leader in the production of carbon fibre composite materials and intelligent systems for the mechanical, aviation and aerospace sectors. A dedicated RPA (remotely piloted aircraft) Airport "Test Bed".

Green economy
20,760 companies have invested in green products and technologies. Italy’s leading region for the production of renewable energy: wind, solar and bioenergy.
44.3% of total energy consumed in the region is produced from renewable sources.

Mechanics and Mechatronics
7,840 companies and 49,288 workers.
A 2014 export turnover of 2.4 billion euros, +5% compared to 2013.
Leader in the automotive industry, in the production of diagnostic technologies for rail networks, in the creation of automated production lines and in the biomedical sector.

Agri-food Sector
82,993 companies and 245,640 workers.
A 2014 export turnover of 1.4 billion euros, +0.7% compared to 2013.
Italian leader in the production of wine, extra virgin olive oil, durum wheat, table grapes, tomatoes, almonds, olives, artichokes and cherries, organic fruit and vegetables. A wide range of certi ed traditional products.

Fashion
4,782 companies and 42,402 workers.
An export turnover of 675.2 million euros in 2014, +10.5% compared to 2013.
A wide range of haute couture and wedding dresses, and technological innovation.
Leader in the production of wedding dresses and special occasion wear.

Furniture and furnishings Sector
3,412 companies and 42,402 workers.
An export turnover in 2014 of 362.3 billion euros, +1.5% compared to 2013.
International brands manufacture and create in Puglia.
Leader in the production of upholstered leather furniture, with a growing home automation and design sector.

Located in the southeast of the Italian peninsula, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the region has forever been a crossroads for the major international east- west and north-south corridors. Puglia is a logistics hub, at the heart of the Mediterranean Basin, for the transport of goods and people by air, water, rail and road.
These are the infrastructural facilities of the Puglia Region:

9 PORTS
3 major ports
Taranto (transhipment container hub), Bari and Brindisi (transport of goods and people).
6 minor ports
Manfredonia (Fg), Barletta (Bt), Molfetta (Ba), Monopoli (Ba), Otranto (Le), Gallipoli (Le).

4 AIRPORTS
2 international airports
Bari and Brindisi.
1 internal airport
Foggia.
1 cargo airport
Taranto.
Around 60 European cities
connected by direct passenger flights.

RAILWAY NETWORK 1,584.4 Km.

ROAD NETWORK 12,000 Km, among the most efficient in Italy.

An important multimodal logistics platform for the sorting and transfer of goods.
An international conference centre
and a growing business sector dedicated to incentive meetings.

Graduate population (age range 30 - 34 years)
South of Italy: 18.2%
Puglia: 20.8%

Old age index
Italy: 154.1%
Puglia: 139.9%

NIDI (Nuove iniziative di impresa/New Business Initiatives)
A public incentives programme with a 
budget of 54 million euros, which enables
the start-up of new small businesses,
based on investments ranging from
10,000 to 150,000 euros.

“Bollenti spiriti” (“Boiling Spirits”)
Regional Programme For Young Peoples Initiatives
780 Start-ups and youth projects funded by the “Principi Attivi”
(“Active Ingredients”) Initiative.
109 Urban Labs (social spaces for young people, created by
restoring abandoned ex public buildings).

Youth Guarantee Programme Budget of 120.4 million euros.

A regional industrial policy for growth and development, based on 5 main pillars:
Support for business investments,research and innovation.

Access to credit.
Active labour market policies.
International business promotion.
Development of industrial areas.

Some examples of supported successful business initiatives “Made in Puglia”:
Design and manufacturing of carbon fibre components for
the 787 Dreamliner.
Diagnostic systems for rail networks by a multinational
mechatronics company, headquartered in Monopoli (Ba).
Sophisticated microchips produced by a company, based in
Modugno (Ba) for NASA’s Curiosity robot, which landed on
Mars in 2012.

Some of the multinational companies that have invested in Puglia:
Alenia Aermacchi / AgustaWestland / Ansaldo - Finmeccanica / Birra Peroni - SABMiller Plc / Centro Studi Componenti per Veicoli - Bosch / Exprivia / Getrag Corporate Group / Magneti Marelli Holding - Fiat / Merck Serono - Merck KGaA / MerMec / Nuovo Pignone - General Electric / O-I-Manufacturing Italy - Owens-Illinois / Porsche / Sanofi Aventis / Salver - Invesco / Vetrerie Meridionali - Owens-Illinois / Wind Telecomunicazioni - VimplCom Ltd
Foreign investors are mainly from:
Germany, Russia, France, UK and USA.

Business clusters
Aerospace / Quality Agrifood Jonico-Salentino / Quality Agrifood Terre Federiciane / Environmental and Recycling technologies “Dialogo?i” - Communication, publishing, graphic and paper industry / Sustainable Building / “La Nuova Energia” (“New Energy”) - Renewable Energies and Energy E ciency / Fashion / Nursery gardening / Information Technology / Stone industry / Furniture and furnishing Industry / Logistics / Mechanics / Yachting/ Fishing and Aquaculture / Creative Industry / Tourism.

Regional incentives initiatives are ongoing and have no fixed deadline, subject to the availability of funds. The evaluation process is made easier, thanks to online procedures, which are set up on the regional web portal “Sistema Puglia”. The evaluation and management of applications is carried out in as short a time as possible. There is an ongoing direct dialogue with the applicant companies, which can effectively speed up the implementation of their investmentprojects.

Targeted and flexible incentives,
subject to budget availability.

Easier application procedures
thanks to online procedures.

Rapid evaluation
of investment projects.

Direct dialogue
between the investing companies and the regional agency Puglia Sviluppo Spa.

Between 2009 and 2014
Investments for almost 4 billion euros with just over 1 billion euros of public funding.
11,346 companies involved.
11,279 funded initiatives.
Employment opportunities are forecast for more than 27,500 people, including both current positions and new hirings.

New incentives for business investments

Programme Agreements
Targeted at large enterprises, they foster regional development, competitiveness and attractiveness through investments in machinery and building works, experimental R&D, business consultancy services. Funding available for investment projects in the range of 5 to 100 million euros.

Business incubators
The regional agency Puglia Sviluppo Spa, member of the European EBN Innovation Network, makes available working spaces and services to start-ups and innovative new businesses, through two business incubators, located in Modugno(Ba) and Casarano(Le), offering competitive costs and 100Mbps ultrafast broadband. Availability notices on www.pugliasviluppo.eu.

INTEGRATED INCENTIVES PACKAGES - PIA

PIA for small-sized enterprises
Aimed at small-sized enterprises involved in business development initiatives, they support the creation of new production units, the expansion of existing ones and the diversification of products and processes. Funding available for investment projects in the range of 1 to 20 million euros.

PIA Tourism
Targeted at enterprises of all sizes, they aim to improve the local tourist sector and increase all year round tourism inflows. Funding available for investment projects in the range of 1 to 40 million euros.

PIA medium-sized enterprises
Targeted at medium-sized enterprises, they provide funding for investments in machinery, land and building works, R&D, as well as consultancy services for international business development, e-business and environmental protection. PIA aim to create employment, social stability and economic dynamism. Funding available for investment projects in the range of 1 to 40 million euros.

As of 31st December 2014, the Regional Government certified to the European Commission overall expenditure of 75% of the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) and ESF (European Social Fund) Programmes, for a total of 4.96 billion euros, well in excess of the expenditure targets laid by the EC for both programmes.

4 UNIVERSITIES,
1 POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY (the only one in southern Italy),
252 University courses.

Tecnopolis Technological Park.

Ciheam, an intergovernmental organization that involves 13 Mediterranean countries: in Bari it has a centre of excellence for postgraduate training, applied scienti c research and planning.

Public research organizations such as the CNR, ENEA, INFN, Scientific Institutes for Research, Hospital and Health Care Research Centres, the Bonomo research centre, as well as research consortia and institutes renowned on an international level.

6 Technological Clusters:
D.A.Re Agrifood, Dhitech High Tech, Di.T.N.E Energy, Dta Aerospace, H-BIO Biotechnology, Medis Mechatronics.

5 public and private research entities:
Innovaal, MBLab, Textra, Risma, Ritma.

230 bodies currently working together within: public lab networks, ILO (Technology Transfer Offices), spin-offs and innovative businesses.

WORLD TOP 30 
Among 1,337 universities, based in the various continents, the scientific productions carried out by the Polytechnic and the Apulian universities, have achieved prominent positions in international rankings (Global Research Benchmarking System).

Based on research by the Bank of Italy, during the planning period 2007-2013, the Regional Government stood out among other Italian regions for its significant commitment to investments in research and innovation (15% of public funds against an average of 8.2% for the whole of southern Italy). It follows that the total research and development expenditure in Puglia grew steadily from 1999 to 2011, placing it as the most dynamic region for research in southern Italy.

Puglia is the 5th among Italian regions for the number of companies, active in research.

Puglia is the 1st in Southern Italy for the number of patent applications.

Thanks to an integrated system of regional policies which support training, businesses, universities and research centres.

Today Puglia is a cool location for weddings, Vip travel, and for high-level business events. The property market has recorded a strong demand from a growing number of people who decide to move here from every corner of the world, or want to buy a masseria or an historic home in Puglia.

Brand PUGLIA
Top of the minds among the Italian holiday destinations in 2015*
Brand association: welcoming, beautiful, authentic, cool, eco-friendly*
About 300 international film production companies have chosen Puglia as a shooting location over the last 9 years.
*Survey by SWG 2015 in France, UK, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands.

Puglia is attractive
It is oriented towards sustainable rather than mass tourism, despite welcoming more than 13 million tourists every year.
It is the Italian leader for incoming tourism: +9.2% in 2014 (Pugliapromozione statistics), compared to Italy -0.1%.
Together with Tuscany, Puglia is the top destination for high-level events: VIP weddings (Justin Timberlake, members of the British royal family, the main markets of India and the United Arab Emirates) and incentive business events (masserie and trulli among the most preferred locations).

ABOUT US
National Geographic One of the top word destination for 2014.
Lonely Planet Puglia is one of the best value travel destinations in the world for 2014, a real queen properly crowned.
New York Times Italy’s Magical Puglia Region.
Huffington Post US It is one of the 15 places in the world to go to before they get famous and crowded.
Lifestyle Woman It is a journey for all senses.
Jetwings International Puglia is one of the lands that better keep their secrets and where nothing is more naturally Italian... a real paradise.
The Guardian Uncontaminated Italy.
Il Sole 24 Ore The entrepreneurs see Puglia as a more favourable context for their investments, in comparison to the other regions of southern Italy.
Banca d’Italia Apulian teachers are better rated in comparison to the average level in southern Italy.
Report Rai Tre, Milena Gabanelli Who could ever have thought that the system which has completely revolutionized the diesel engine the world over, the common rail system, was born in the little Apulian town of Modugno.

A new boost will be given to emerging business sectors, such as aerospace, mechatronics and green economy, based particularly on the growth of the knowledge economy and innovation. These sectors were already considered to be strategic during the previous programming period and have gained a more prominent position in recent years throughout the region.
The new map for the future focuses on smart specializations for a smart Puglia, or in other words, a region capable of devising and implementing smart and integrated policies. In this way, the Puglia of the future will be attractive, competitive, all-encompassing, conscious and responsible, connected and integrated.
Puglia is focusing on five highly-specialized “smart” business sectors: micro- and nano-electronics, nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, advanced materials, “smart factories” and advanced manufacturing.