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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NAPLES 000118 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON PGOV PREL IT
SUBJECT: APULIA: INNOVATION AT HOME, OUTREACH TO THE BALKANS 
 
SUMMARY: Apulia, at the southern tip of Italy's Adiatric coast, 
is unquestionably the South's success story, with government and 
academia demonstrably committed to innovation, and the private 
and public sectors working together to build bridges to the 
Balkans and beyond.  While organized crime has not disappeared, 
its power has been seriously eroded.  Although Apulia has not 
regained the economic parity with the North it enjoyed thirty 
years ago, it is certainly doing better than its neighbors, and 
has attracted major American investments - in particular, 
Boeing, which is building the 787 Dreamliner near Taranto, and 
Advanced Technology Services, which is involved in rebuilding 
the important container port of Taranto, Italy's second largest. 
 Perhaps more importantly, Apulia exudes an optimism that is 
rare in the Italian South, where skepticism and superstition 
normally hold sway.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.      Apulia, inhabited since ancient times by waves of 
seafarers, and allegedly protected from invaders by the bones of 
St. Nicholas, stolen from what is now Turkey in the eleventh 
century, is putting itself back on the map after decades of 
decline.  On a recent three-day trip, "innovation" was the word 
the Consul General heard more than any other, starting with 
Minister of Innovation Luigi Nicolais, in Bari for a 
Confindustria networking conference, who confirmed our 
assessment that Apulia is the most likely candidate for success 
in the South, possibly the only one.  The Region's maverick 
President, communist Nichy Vendola, told us innovation was his 
number one priority, starting with the public administration. 
Vendola realizes that Apulia's most important resource is its 
people, and has reached out to several hundred prominent 
Pugliesi who have left the region (many for the United States), 
and has invited them to form a "Rete Puglia" (Apulia Network) to 
provide partnership and mentorship for the region's institutions 
and economy, 
 
INNOVATION 
 
¶3.      Although Apulia's well-established universities such as 
Bari suffer, like many Italian institutions, from internal 
politics that stifles new research, the comparatively new 
university in Lecce has become a beacon of innovation.  A group 
of engineering professors who fled the bureaucracy of Neapolitan 
academia have founded the "Ecotekne" innovation center, 
responsible for a flurry of recent patents (one 35-year-old 
Assistant Professor already has six).  This dream team's latest 
achievement is an implant to repair paralysis caused by spinal 
cord injuries, which has already been successfully tested in 
laboratory mice.  The group is in the final phases of creating 
commercial spinoffs, funded by venture capital from State Street 
Global Investments and the Milan-based firm Quantica.  The 
University of Lecce also boasts Italy's only nanotechnology 
center, founded by a former researcher at Germany's Max Planck 
Institut.  Although Lecce's dynamic young mayor Paolo Perrone 
(Forza Italia) bemoaned the decline of the region's 
once-thriving textile industry, the bright young engineers of 
Ecotekne have created a fabric for sweatsocks that don't sweat; 
such innovations may give some of the old industries a new lease 
on life with a future-oriented focus. 
 
BALKAN OUTREACH 
 
¶4.      For centuries a region of seafarers, many of whom 
emigrated to countries such as the U.S. over the last century, 
Apulia is now on the front lines of European immigration, 
especially from the Balkans.  The St. Nicholas connection and 
long-established sea routes have established a natural link 
between Bari and Central Europe, and, with 800 kilometers of 
coastline on the southeast extremity of the Italian boot, Apulia 
served throughout the 1990s as the point of transit for migrants 
in search of more lucrative destinations in Northern Italy or 
Germany.  Although the migrant flux has not ended, the port of 
Bari now serves as an important transfer station for these 
immigrants as they return as tourists to their homelands during 
summer vacation periods.  When asked whether Muslim immigrants 
from Albania/Bosnia/Kosovo also visited during the Eid at the 
end of Ramadan, the Port Director told the CG, "No, they're 
completely Westernized; now they come for Christmas."  While 
only a few years ago most still arrived in Bari by bus or train, 
now most come in cars.  The Port Authority has reached out 
through Albanian-language radio and other communication networks 
 
NAPLES 00000118  002 OF 003 
 
 
to provide logistical assistance to prevent traffic jams, and 
has even constructed new port facilities catering to Albanians. 
So far this year, the port has handled over 700,000 passengers 
to and from Albania alone. 
 
¶5.      Regional President Vendola told the CG that, although in 
earlier years local hospitals had offered free medical treatment 
to Albanians who could not obtain specialized care at home, the 
Region has now found it more profitable to improve the medical 
infrastructure in Albania, and is now assisting the Mother 
Teresa Hospital in Tirana to attain Western standards.  The 
Region's outreach and economic interests are firmly linked, with 
Bari's Fiera di Levante, the major Southern Italian Fairgrounds, 
reinventing itself under its new President, Cosimo Lacirignola, 
as a gateway to the Balkans, with its annual fall trade fair 
featuring Albanian, Macedonian, and Montenegrin days, attended 
by prominent political figures from the respective countries. 
The region is now looking even beyond the Balkans; Bari Mayor 
Michele Emiliano told the CG that the city aspires to be "the 
Geneva of the Mediterranean." 
 
¶6.      The region's welcoming attitude toward visitors and its 
tolerance of foreigners extends even to the man on the street. 
When we stepped into the Church of St. Nicholas, Bari's patron 
saint, for a quick look between appointments, we were soon 
joined by a local policeman who, with the intellectual breadth 
of a seasoned architectural historian, gave us a tour, making 
special mention of the fact that the church offers both Catholic 
and Orthodox services, noting also that the city had given the 
Russian Orthodox community its own church, and offering excuses 
that "unfortunately we still don't have a mosque." 
 
FURTHER CHALLENGES AHEAD 
 
¶7.      Apulia's rising fortunes have come, not surprisingly, with 
a notable drop in organized crime.  A key figure in this 
development has been Bari Mayor Emiliano, Regional Secretary of 
the new Democratic Party, who as prosecutor in Brindisi became a 
prominent member of the pool fighting against the Sacra Corona 
Unita.  Although break-ins and other property crimes remain 
unacceptably high, Bari Prefect Varlo Schilardi told the CG that 
the entire province (over one million inhabitants) had 
experienced only seven homicides all year.  The Treasury Police 
have also fearlessly combated economic crimes, including 
intellectual property rights violations, seizing approximately 
USD 750 million worth of pirated goods in the past year.  They 
have also claimed victory in the battle on cigarette smuggling; 
seizures of illicit tobacco products, mostly from Greece and the 
Balkans, have dropped from over 500,000 kilos annually in the 
last decade to only 3,000 kilos this year.  The Treasury Police 
are now focusing on combating drug smuggling, loan sharking, 
extortion, and counterfeiting/piracy. 
 
¶8.      Impressive as Apulia's progress is, it is still a work in 
progress.  Bari Mayor Emiliano compared himself to the driver of 
a Wild West caravan, trying to make sure the cattle don't go off 
in the wrong direction.  Regional President Vendola compared 
himself to a weaver, literally threading together the fabric of 
his region. Clearly not everyone is living the Apulian dream. 
Local Editor-in-Chief of the national daily La Repubblica, 
Stefano Costantini, told us Pugliesi are increasingly frustrated 
with their local and national politicians.  Emiliano's 
popularity has waned as he failed to deliver on numerous 
campaign promises.  Corruption scandals have targeted both 
former Regional President Raffaele Fitto and the former mayor of 
Brindisi; the latter is alleged to have taken bribes to smooth 
approval for a 600 million euro regasification plant. 
Unemployment is rampant (15% in Lecce, for example), as formerly 
prominent industries such as sofa-manufacturing are increasingly 
outsourced to China and small- and medium-sized enterprises are 
driven out of business by international chain stores.  Lecce 
Mayor Perrone lamented that, at the opposite end of the spectrum 
from the Ecotekne wonder boys are unskilled high school dropouts 
who expect the government to hand them a job.  When we suggested 
they might be retrained to help fix up some of the still 
unrestored buildings in Lecce's beautiful Baroque center, the 
Mayor was skeptical, however, they could accomplish even that. 
Not all immigrants have been welcomed, either; only a year ago 
Italian and Polish police freed over 100 Polish tomato-pickers 
working in what amounted to slave labor camps in the province of 
 
NAPLES 00000118  003 OF 003 
 
 
Foggia. 
 
¶9.      COMMENT: Apulia, particularly its dynamic political class 
and its brilliant innovators, seems a very propitious venue for 
the Mission's Partnership for Growth.  We will actively pursue 
outreach programs and conferences to assist the region's bright 
young researchers to master the entrepreneurship skills that are 
still in the development phase and to network with U.S. 
institutions, both public and private (Ecotekne already has an 
exchange program with MIT, and is about to sign one with 
Drexel).  Clearly this is a region with bright prospects for 
American business, with a well-established infrastructure, 
highly-qualified workforce, and good access to markets.  Of all 
the regions in our large distict, it is also the most propitious 
for advancement of U.S. foreign policy goals, particularly in 
the Balkans, and an excellent opportunity for Muslim outreach. 
As Regional President Vendola told the CG, "I'm a diplomat, 
too," but he made it clear, as did the rest of his political 
colleagues, Confindustria, and other economic entities, that he 
strongly welcomed close collaboration from career diplomats like 
us, and we are eager to engage.  End Comment. 
TRUHN