Milan - Economy

Economy

While Rome is Italy's political capital, Milan is the country's economic and financial heart. With a 2010 GDP estimated at €132 billion, the province of Milan generates approximately 9% of the national GDP; while the economy of the Lombardy region generates approximately 20% of the Italy's GDP (or an estimated €325 billion in 2010, roughly the size of Belgium).

The province of Milan is home to about 45% of businesses in the Lombardy region and more than 8 percent of all businesses in Italy, including three Fortune 500 companies. Milan is home to a large number of media and advertising agencies, national newspapers and telecommunication companies, including both the public service broadcaster RAI and private television companies like Mediaset, Telecom Italia Media and Sky Italia. In addition, it has also seen a rapid increase in internet companies with both domestic and international companies such as Altavista, Google, Lycos, Virgilio and Yahoo! establishing their Italian operations in the city. Milan is a major world fashion centre, where the sector can count on 12,000 companies, 800 show rooms, and 6,000 sales outlets (with brands such as Armani, Versace and Valentino), while four weeks a year are dedicated to top shows and other fashion events. The city is also an important manufacturing centre, especially for the automotive industry, with companies such as Alfa Romeo and Pirelli having a significant presence in the city. Other important products made in Milan include chemicals, machinery, pharmaceuticals and plastics.

Other key sectors in the city's economy are advanced research in health and biotechnologies, chemicals and engineering, banking and finance. Milan is the home to Italy's main banking groups (198 companies) and over forty foreign banks. The Associazione Bancaria Italiana representing the Italian banking system and Milan Stock Exchange (225 companies listed on the stock exchange) are both located in the city. The city can boast one of Europe's largest trade fair systems of over 1,600,000 m2 and about 4.5 million visitors flock to the around 75 major events every year from all over the world as well as to the high-tech conference centres. Tourism is an increasingly important part of the city's economy: in 2010, the city registered more than 2.3 million international arrivals, up 10% on the previous year.

Milan is presently undergoing a massive urban renewal. FieraMilano, the historical city trade fair operator, owned a fair ground known as "FieraMilanoCity", which was dismantled to be house for a major urban development, CityLife district. The new trade exhibition center, built in the north-western suburb of Rho and inaugurated in April 2005, makes FieraMilano one of the largest expo areas in the world. Along with CityLife, many other construction projects are under way to rehabilitate disused industrial areas. Several famous architects take part in the projects, such as Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid, Massimiliano Fuksas and Daniel Libeskind. Many of these projects are in preparation contextually to the Milan 2015 Expo.