APCOM

Lately, there has been a remarkable upsurge of business owned by Romanian citizens in the city of Milano. Over the last twelve months, they have increased by 41% in Lombardy's capital, which is numbered third at a national level. As for Italy, the growth is even bigger; 50%. These are the main statistics of a survey, carried out by Milano's Chamber of Commerce, which was based on data of 2007 and 2006 companies' register and Istat (national institute of statistics).

The region's businesses whose owner comes from Romania are over 5,000, 57% more than a year ago. The ranking of the first 15 Italian provinces includes four of the Lombardy region: Milano, Brescia, Pavia and Cremona. As for the offices held, the presence of individual firms' owners is particularly strong (+57% in a year), but the managers' number rise too (+27%). The building industry is by far the prevalent field, then come manufacturing and trading.

Torino is the leading Italian city with Romanian business owners, (3,853), while the province of Lucca has seen the biggest boost (+134%). However, the relations with Romania are more lukewarm: the commercial dealings have been reduced by 3.4% and, in particular, the Italian import has decreased (-6%). As for the Romanian entrepreneur's profile, he is young, between the age of 30 and 49, in 68% of cases. Nine out of ten are men, around 80% work in the building industry.