The State's taking up a stake in
crisis-hit businesses like airline Alitalia, the ex-ILVA steel
group and the failed Popolare di Bari bank should no longer be a
"taboo", Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said in a newspaper
interview Tuesday.
"The State and the market can co-exist with the express
purpose of making the market work better," he told La
Repubblica.
Gualtieri recalled that the formula of a mixed public and
private ownership "showed its benefits" in the many partial
privatisations of State companies that Italy has seen over the
last couple of decades.
"The most important Italian multinationals are still today
companies with a public stakeholding," he said.
The State is set to take up a stake in chronically lossmaking
airline Alitalia, along with Delta Airlines and other interested
parties.
It is also set to invest in the former ILVA steel group and
its sprawling and highly polluting Taranto plant after
Framco-Indian group ArcleorMittal tried to get out of a contract
to take it over.
The State will also play its part in the rescue of Banca
Popolare di Bari.
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