swiss label - Com Consulting SA

Locarno, city of tourism
and culture, an ideal
location for hi-tech industry
Capital of the district of the same name and a regional
centre, Locarno sits on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore.
Bathed in a special microclimate, over the years it has
become famous internationally for its film festival (first held
in 1946), the second oldest film festival in the world after the
Venice Biennale.
But Locarno isn’t just about tourism and culture. It is also an
economic and industrial hub. The Riazzino industrial park is
home to high-tech industries and offers them all the infrastructures
they need to establish their cutting-edge businesses. Not far from the
main North-South transport links, the Locarno-Riazzino industrial
park receives federal, cantonal and communal subsidies as well as tax
breaks.
“The lake, the mountains, the Mediterranean climate: these are the extremely
valuable natural elements that characterise the region in which our industrial
park is based. For a high-tech industry, being able to offer your highly
qualified employees the opportunity to live in a place that offers such an
exceptional quality of life can be a singular advantage,” explains the
mayor of Locarno, lawyer Carla Speziali, head of the commune’s
executive since 2004 and member of the city council responsible for
the finance department since 2000.
© DR
“The festival is the feather in our cap: it is Switzerland’s most important
cultural event. It is both an international and a local festival, but it’s the
‘Locarnese’ character that makes it what it is. We support the event in
every way we can and are extremely proud of it, and even under new
management it will succeed in bringing people closer to the Festival, above
all in relation to the Piazza Grande,” explains Speziali. That’s the
cultural aspect. What can you tell us about the industrial park?
“The cantonal and communal authorities actively support the industrial
park project through the urbanization of funds, although not exclusively.
There is in fact federal and cantonal financing provided for technological
innovation for those industries that satisfy the necessary requirements, as
well as aid for training their employees. Last but not least, they are
guaranteed large tax concessions.”
The Canton of Ticino has some of the most advanced training facilities
in Europe. This makes it possible to find extremely highly qualified
staff for all technological and administrative sectors. “Nor must we forget
our proximity to Italy, which is an important source of labour,” adds
Carla Speziali.
The Locarno region, lest we forget, is the base of some important
industries with a high technological content, contained within a fairly
limited geographical area. “We are convinced that this situation offers the
potential for some excellent synergies from various points of view. We are
keen to encourage these in every way possible,” concludes Carla Speziali.
Locarno is the home of IRSOL (Istituto Ricerche Solari di Locarno),
a research centre that specialises in observing the solar spectrum. The
centre was founded in 1960 by the University of Göttingen and
currently collaborates with various international research centres.
Città di Locarno
Piazza Grande 18 – CH-6600 Locarno
Tel.: +41 (0)91 756 31 11 - Fax: +41 (0)91 751 11 77
E-mail: citta@locarno.ch - Website: www.locarno.ch
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