SINOGRAPH China throws a lifeline to Italy's Taranto
By Francesco Sisci
TARANTO, Italy - At the entrance to this city, hanging from an old house is an
aging neon sign for San Marzano, an "Oriental Elixir" - a reminder of the
historical destiny of Taranto. Newspapers explain that the company producing
San Marzano, the city's liqueur, is going bankrupt, as seems to be the urban
center. With little more than 200,000 inhabitants, there are 7,500 unemployed
just from the local steelworks.
Roads in the city center are full of empty parking spaces and almost all the
stores, out of season or not, show "sale" signs - concrete proof of the crisis.
Taranto seems to be an example of the problems, frustrations and vain hopes of
southern Italy. Once
the gates of the East to Europe, the region is now almost a festering appendix
of a fading continent (see Fading
Europe aids China-US ties Asia Times Online, August 6).
In 1866, the then just-united Italy wanted Taranto as its main military port.
Ministers from Turin had French leader Napoleon Bonaparte in mind, who
envisaged Taranto as the potential main port of Europe because of its position
almost opposite Egypt and the Suez. It was to be an alternative to Malta -
hooked to the mainland and the strategic hub to control the Mediterranean.
However, as Napoleon's attempt to control Egypt failed because of Lord Nelson's
warships, so did the dream of rebuilding Taranto's glory.
Taranto re-emerged in the 1960s with new steelworks that produced much of the
steel for the Italian miracle, but sank once again when that miracle faded.
The city seemed destined to sink into a quagmire of organized crime, and in the
grip of political hooligans, such as former mayor Giancarlo Cito who ended his
career buried under a flood of arrest warrants for violent crimes.
Nevertheless, just when China began to grow and challenge some of the small-
and medium-sized Italian enterprises of the north, Taranto was offered a new
glimmer of hope.
At the end of the 1990s, the strategic potential of the port sparked the
interest of one of the world's largest logistic companies, Taiwan's Evergreen,
which bought a 40% stake in the port's container concession. Then, in January
this year, 50% of the concession was purchased by Hutchison Whampoa, an even
larger logistics company than Evergreen that is controlled by Hong Kong's Li
Ka-shing, one of the wealthiest people in the world with close ties to Beijing.
The container port is therefore 90% Chinese-controlled, with the remaining 10%
in the hands of an Italian associate, the Sisam company.
The investment in the port could transform the city - and Italy. At the end of
this year, despite the global economic crisis, Taranto will be in a position to
handle 800,000 containers a year, which could grow to 6-7 million or more if
planned infrastructure development goes according to plan. This would make
Taranto the largest container harbor in the Mediterranean and Europe.
However, there are the usual Italian snags.
"We asked for authorizations, already promised by the government, so we could
proceed with the infrastructure work to expand the port," said Ippazio Stefano,
whose name reflects the city's Greek legacy.
Some of the work to be done includes dredging the seabed by a couple of meters
to allow the new generation of super-big containers to berth, and to build
several kilometers of roads and railroads to connect the harbor to the main
highway and the railway station.
These are projects that would take only a few months in workaholic China, but
little progress has been at Taranto. The development is caught in red tape,
with the authorities still wondering how to handle the mud dragged from the
sea.
The project has the potential to transform Taranto, and even Italy. At present,
the port serves only as a trans-shipment center, moving containers from large
to small ships. Its true transformation would involve transporting the goods in
the containers. That is, to open them, repackage them and put them on trains
and trucks to be sent directly to their final destination.
If this were to happen, southern Italy would once again become a gateway to the
Orient, and Italy would have a new geopolitical destiny. This would force
Europe to rethink its policies and strategies toward China and Asia.
The Chinese partners have agreed to pay the 500 million euros (US$705 million)
necessary to develop the port - all they asked for was a clear timetable and
permits for the infrastructure work.
They are still waiting.
The project now needs a huge push from Rome, but this might depend on a dark
political alchemy, almost as mysterious as the formula for Taranto's San
Marzano.
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