If the commitment to secure the future of the automotive industry remains strong, local industries are embracing change, argues Dario Gallina, the president of the Turin Chamber of Commerce. 

How would you describe the trajectory of Piemonte’s economy? 

This is a territory that knows how to change. It has led the development of the Italian industry, but has also shown its capacity to evolve and adapt over the past decades, but manufacturing still accounts for 25% of the regional economy and remains very rooted locally. Certainly there is a commitment to strengthen the local industry and make it more appealing to foreign investors in sectors other than automotive. 

Dario Gallina

What other sectors would you single out? 

Semiconductors is one of them. In 2024 alone, we had two big investment announcements. One by Silicon Box in Novara, and another one by Aixtron in Orbassano, in the outskirts of Turin. Aerospace is growing very rapidly too and there are examples of companies that have been able to transition from automotive to aerospace. It’s something we continuously encourage and support, also considering they are sectors with high profit margins and standards, which shield them to a certain extent from the competition of Asian producers. At the same time, the same city of Turin has made the most of the Winter Olympic Games it hosted in 2006 to upgrade its offer of touristic services. The city is surrounded by a unique territory that has a wide touristic offer, from mountains to lakes and the Langhe hills. Those places can all be integrated with what the city itself has to offer. Today, tourism has become a sector that makes up 10% of the regional economic activity. It’s not the city of industry and automotive any longer, but one that is transforming rapidly opening up to services, but still keeping a strong manufacturing identity with multinational companies operating here. On top of that, our logistics offer is in the process of being upgraded with the east-to-west and north-to-south railway corridors that meet in Piemonte. Those upgrades have the potential to boost the attractiveness of the territory. Then there is talent. 

Do you want to elaborate on its talent offer? 

Only in Turin, we have 120,000 students enrolled at the Polytechnic of Turin and the University of Turin, with a growing component of international students too. That is out of a total population of 850,000, which makes it a meaningful figure. It’s another important asset for the development of our territory, which is a key component of any industrial policy. Beyond students per se, there is a lot of knowledge across mechatronic (smart manufacturing) and electronics, as well as artificial intelligence (AI), with the national  AI for Industry foundation (AI4I) that is setting up in Turin. These are all positive elements from an investment promotion perspective. On top of that, there is a rising tech ecosystem of start-ups and incubators in some of the sectors I mentioned. In space, for example, Turin hosts the European Space Agency business incubator centre, or Esa Bic, which is strengthening the role of Turin as a major hub for the space economy. And then there is the whole value chain of the automotive industry, which retains a lot of knowledge also in its most value-added segments like design.