Xinhuanet
Source: Xinhua
Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce said Tuesday that some 590,000 companies registered in Italy by the end of 2017 were owned and run by immigrants.
The number is about 10 percent of the total companies in Italy, representing a 3.4 percent rise over the previous year, compared to a 0.75 percent rise in the number of companies run by Italians, the union said.
In absolute terms, according to the union, Lombardy was the region with the highest number of immigrant-owned companies (114,000), followed by Lazio (77,000) and Tuscany (55,000).
In terms of a city, Prato in Tuscany remained the city with the highest percentage of foreign companies (27.8 percent), followed by Trieste (16 percent) and Florence (15.8 percent). And Milan was 14.4 percent while Rome, 13.4 percent.
In 2017, the southern region of Campania registered the largest growth in foreign businesses, at 6.1 percent, followed by the Marche region (4.5 percent) and Lazio region (4.3 percent). The only region with a negative balance was Sicily, with 2,057 companies closing and 1,888 opening, it said.
In absolute terms, foreign companies had the largest presence in the retail sector, followed by food and catering. And the largest concentration was in the telecommunications sector, with foreign companies accounting for 33.6 percent of the total, and in clothes manufacturing, 30 percent.
Meanwhile, the largest national group to own and run companies in Italy was Morocco, the ANSA news agency reported.
