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Nearly half of Italian int'l companies have headquarters in Lombardy

Xinhua, March 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

Some 48.6 percent of Italian companies belonging to international groups have their headquarters in Lombardy region, the Milan Chamber of Commerce said on Wednesday.

In Lombardy region there are a total of 4,721 foreign-participated companies with an overall turnover of 220 billion euros (242 billion U.S. dollars), the chamber said in a statement.

Milan, the capital of Lombardy, is the top city in the northern region in terms of the number of foreign-participated companies, followed by Monza, Bergamo, Brescia and Varese, the figures showed.

A total of 3,285 foreign-participated companies have their headquarters in Milan, employing some 280,000 workers and producing overall annual revenues of 170 billion euros (187 billion U.S. dollars).

The results have been achieved with the help of the "Invest in Lombardy" project carried out by the Milan Chamber of Commerce and other local institutions to support companies and attract foreign direct investment (FDI), the statement added.

Between 2003 and 2014, over 50 percent of new FDI projects in Lombardy involved the sector of services, while between 2004 and 2014 a total of 2,676 Italian companies were partially or fully acquired by foreign investors, the statement said.

Europe and the United States ranked first among investors in Lombardy, but so-called BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- saw considerable growth, with their investments rising from 0.5 percent to 9.1 percent of total FDI in Lombardy over a decade.

Lombardy is considered as Italy's economic engine and has been recently cited by the Financial Times among the first European regions for capacity to attract FDI. The region is home of 16.5 percent of population and 18.3 percent of active companies in Italy. Endit