Lombardy

Located in the north of Italy, at the heart of the most economically advanced European area, Lombardy is a bridge to the Mediterranean Sea. Its strategic location places it geographically on the principal eastwest axis of Europe too. With a surface area of nearly 24,000 square kilometres and 10 million inhabitants, the regional dimension is similar to that of a nation.

Lombardy’s gross domestic product (GDP) is 368 billion euros, about 22 percent of Italy’s GDP. In terms of economic performance, Lombardy’s GDP is higher than the one of many EU Member States. With regard to population, Lombardy is the 3rd highest populated region in Europe, after Île-de-France and Baden-Württemberg.

Lombardy is the leading provider of financial services in Italy: 19.9 percent of the Italian added value produced by the financial sector come from this region. The national Stock Exchange, Borsa Italiana, is located in Milan.

Entrepreneurship in Lombardy is both widespread and dynamic, and it shows an international standard in the search for innovation, development and technology. 815,956 registered enterprises (about 16 percent of the national total) are based in Lombardy. Despite wide deindustrialization throughout the 1990s, 34 percent of the workforce is still employed by industry. The productive sector is dominated by micro and small enterprises, mainly grouped into industrial districts and networks. Lombardy is one of the most specialized areas in Europe for technologically advanced products. There are 68,000 people working in high tech manufacturing, making Lombardy the fifth biggest region in Europe in this respect.

Lombardy is a leader at national level with regard to infrastructures supporting innovation. 18 percent of fablabs and 26 percent of certified incubators are based in Lombardy. Nine dynamic technological clusters do include as associated members companies, universities, research bodies and other public/private actors that are geographically distributed on the regional territory and do focus on specific technological areas. One of them, the Cluster for Energy and Environment, is awarded with the Gold Label and the following eight clusters are awarded with the Bronze Label: Aerospace, Agrifood, Green chemistry, Intelligent factory, Mobility, Life sciences, Smart cities and communities, Technologies for living environments, gathering overall more than 660 stakeholders of the Lombardy innovation ecosystem.

The region is a renowned centre of creativity, particularly in fashion, advertising and industrial design. The university system in Lombardy comprises 13 universities: seven public universities, five private universities and one higher education centre. In addition to universities, Lombardy hosts several prominent centers for research, both private and public, among which there are twelve institutes of the National Research Council (CNR) out of 107 in Italy (Source: CNR) and 17 teaching and research hospitals (out of 42 Italy-wide). In Lombardy there are six science and technology parks, active in the energy, agri-food, aerospace, life sciences, bio-and nano-technologies, and new materials sectors.

Lombardy is the main logistical hub in Italy, both in terms of flows generated and concentration of management activities. Lombardy is also a leader in Italy for its energy infrastructure. Excluding energy from hydroelectric plants, the production of energy from renewable sources has increased 285% since 2000. Today 36.5 percent of the energy capacity in Lombardy is from renewable energy sources, thus contributing to the achievement of the EU 2020 targets.

For more information, please visit: http://www.en.regione.lombardia.it/