Federlogistica seems to have changed its mind on the bridge project on the Strait of Messina which earlier this month obtained the final go-ahead from the Interministerial Committee for the economic planning and sustainable development. If in the last few years two years the former president of the federation, Luigi Merlo, now honorary president of Federlogistica, had repeatedly launched the alarm for the impact that the height of the bridge, considered insufficient, would have on the transit of ships in the Strait ( of 23 February 2023 and 3 May 2024), today this fear seems to be dormant despite the fact that the designed height of the bridge is always the same. The current president of Federlogistica, Davide Falteri, is convinced that "look at the bridge over the Strait as an exceptional infrastructural work, means having lost any vision to the future and passively suffer the condemnation of our country to the decadence. It is true: many negative things, multiple hitches may occur, but especially politics and business may not understand that the bridge over the Strait of Messina is a unique opportunity".

According to Falteri, the construction of the bridge is no less than that "the unique opportunity to strengthen a country that is has always been divided between North and South, progressively eliminating a social injustices and allow Italy to exploit full centrality in a Mediterranean that has returned to being central and decisive, even a healthy and unhealthy connection with other continents, Africa, a Middle East that is a candidate to be a unique force on the world scene and a Europe that is too unbalanced in the north, which also for this reason has failed its cohesion objectives and growth".

If before the bridge over the Strait was judged an obstacle to the ship traffic is now even considered a work thaumaturgical that can bridge social gaps and unite, not only physically, the South to the North.

To tell the truth, Falteri does not attribute these portentous powers to the bridge alone. According to the president of Federlogistica, the effect prodigious could also be produced by an Economic Zone Special of almost 5,580 hectares split into a western and in an eastern one, with about 35% assigned to Sicily and 65% to the east. SEZs that - he explained - for Sicily it would mean a tax credit for investments in capital goods with funds that could reach up to 50-100 million euros according to the project; administrative simplifications and authorizations: simplified procedure with one-stop shops and times reduced by up to a third; additional tax breaks, such as a 50% reduction in income tax for new settlements in SEZs, for an initial period of seven years (extendable); Zone Customs Clearance in some port areas (possible establishment) and greater logistical and infrastructural integration (e.g. corridors customs, freight terminals, railway hubs); Supported Programming from PNRR funds, with investments for the "last mile" in the ports and freight terminals.

"Once upon a time," Falteri said, "we used to talk about a 'granary' of the world referring to countries such as Ukraine or North America. The Sicily, and it is just one example of its potential - underlined - can become the logistics hub Mediterranean and European fruit and vegetables, as well as related food and canning industries. But it is in condition, due to its geographical position, that it is also the hub of new energy resources, including hydrogen. And without forget the potential (including cultural and historical) to take on within the framework of a large interconnected Free Zone, a start-up region for technological innovation".

Falteri seems even more convinced than the minister Matteo Salvini of the unexpressed potential that the bridge on the Strait could unblock: "today - said the president of Federlogistica - it's time to say enough: with a world conditioned by trade wars, tariffs and counter-tariffs, The bridge has all the characteristics to become the artery of a economic and social body hitherto underdeveloped often precisely because of political short-sightedness. And logistics, twinned with the Free Zone, can and must be the added value, activating with the bridge a chain reaction of infrastructures also that can be financed by private individuals, of industrial settlements that are not slaves to public aid and a network of connections intended to enhance the the potential of a land that for too many years (as a great part of the South) was considered as a A lost battle."