Source: Unioncamere 2003
1.3
The
local productive structure
The district of Enna, despite several economic and structural limits, during the last years has been marked out by quite an entrepreneurial vivacity generated by the development of some successful enterprises, with a consequent increase of settlement by industries active in several divisions.
The entrepreneurial structure of the Enna area is characterized by a considerable scattering of the factories on the territory. The 45,000 employed are distributed as follows: 11% in agriculture, 8.9% in the industrial field, 13.3% in the building sector, 66.7% in tertiary industry (17.7% of which in trade).
In
spite of some external diseconomies, during the last years several successful
initiatives have been developed, by which, in some areas, new productive poles
have risen, such as:
In 2002 the entrepreneurial structure in the province of Enna was based on 13,419 active enterprises. The birth and death rates regarding business in 2002 were respectively 8.5% and 5.6%.
Source:
Unioncamere 2003
Agriculture
The economic and productive structure of Enna has always been based on agriculture, which has therefore influenced its social and economical development. Nowadays, this sector still represents one of the most significant sources of income in the province of Enna; in 2001 the agricultural field contributed to the total amount of the value added in the province for 9% - a percentage relevantly higher than the one registered in the whole region, that is 4.9% - thus marking the influence of the sector in the provincial economic structure. This rate has further been confirmed by the increase (+7.4%) in the provincial agricultural value added compared to the rate registered in 2000 (-4.8% in Sicily), thus reaching the amount of _€ 175,000,000.
Source: Elaboration by
Di.S.Te. on ISTAT data
Industry
In 2003, this sector affected the total employment by 22,2% (8.9% concerning factories and the remaining 13.3% the building business).
The structure of the sector is made up of small enterprises, mostly represented by individual firms, up to 74.8%, (32.6% for the factories, 42.4% in the building sector). The remaining companies are distributed as follows:
- 8.6% unlimited liability companies (4.1% factories and 4.5% building contractors);
- 11.4% limited liability companies (5.0% factories and 6.4% building contractors);
- 5.2% different partnerships (0.7 factories and 4.5% building contractors).
The productive activities are mainly founded on the traditional local handicrafts, mostly in the sector of rubber and plastic (Regalbuto), in the wood and furniture industry (Nicosia), in the textile and clothing field (Valguarnera).
The agro industrial production, widely distributed in the whole provincial territory, is mostly concentrated – mainly for what the production of essences and the processing of firstlings are concerned - in the communes on the lower Salso river, in Barrafranca and Pietraperzia.
The presence of propitious conditions has also allowed the development of enterprises in highly specialized sectors, such as the hi-tech, the production of soft-wares and the biomedical field.
Handicraft
The productive activity linked to handicraft plays a strategic role in the local economy, with the presence of 3,371 active firms (source: Movimprese, 3rd three-month period 2003) and with a significant income.
On the grounds of the data provided by the source quoted above, a relevant prevalence of active firms operating in the division of building and in the connected ones (transportation, installation, wrought iron, wood and furniture, stone-marble, sanitary fixtures) can be observed; as a matter of fact, it represents about the 50% of the total sectional structure.
An equally relevant presence of handicraft activities can be observed in different fields of the handmade division.
In detail:
- 974 building contractors (28.9% of the active handicraft enterprises);
- 270 transportation firms (8.0% of the active handicraft enterprises);
- 286 installers of thermo-hydraulic systems and repairers of electrical installations (8.5% of the active handicraft enterprises);
- 182 blacksmiths (5.4% of the active handicraft enterprises);
- 177 wood and furniture making firms (5.2% of the active handicraft enterprises);
- 55 stony enterprises (1.6% of the active handicraft enterprises);
- 6 firms operating in the field of sanitary fixtures (0.18% of the active handicraft enterprises).
Moreover, there is a significant presence of alimentary firms (288 enterprises, representing 8.5% of the total) and of commercial business (536 enterprises, representing 15.9% of the total).
On the other hand, the presence of textile factories (14 enterprises, representing 0.4% of the total), of firms active on artistic handicraft (1,4%) and of computer firms (14 enterprises, representing 0.4% of the total) is not significant.
The handicraft areas in the province of Enna are distributed as follows:
AREA OF TROINA: Total extension: 11 Ha (1,100,00 m2)
Number of lots: 31
€
0.39 per square metre per year
Complete with works of primary and secondary organization
AREA OF CENTURIPE Total extension: 4.80 Ha (48,000 m2)
Number of lots: 50
€
13.17 per square metre per year
AREA OF REGALBUTO Total extension: 4.81 Ha (48,100 m2)
Number of lots: 23
Average buy/rent price: to be defined
AREA OF ENNA Total extension: 3.95 Ha (39,500 m2)
Number of lots: to be defined
Average buy/rent price: to be defined
AREA OF CATENANUOVA Total extension: 3.52 Ha (35,200 m2)
Number of lots: 21
Average buy/rent price: to be defined
The handicraft area is being completed. Once finished, it will provide 21 factories, that will be rented according to the municipal rule and whose fee will be defined by a public announcement from June 2005 onwards.
Tourism
First of all, it should be pointed out that, in the whole regional area, no proportion can be found between the amount of cultural and artistic resources and potentials of each province and the development of the tourist phenomenon in the same area. As a matter of fact, the development of tourism is concentrated in some resorts, mainly on the coast.
In the province of Enna, the field of tourism is open to significant improvement, especially regarding the exploitation of archaeological sites of international interest, such as Villa Romana del Casale in Piazza Armerina and Morgantina.
According to the data provided by the Regional Councillorship for Tourism, in the year 2003 the number of tourists in the province of Enna was 113,112 (+6.6% compared to the year 2002), 75% of which coming from Italy. The arrivals were 56,000 (+8.1% compared to the year 2002).
The hotel accommodation represents 2% of the total of Sicily, and consists of 1,200 beds distributed among more than 30 hotels, mainly located in Enna, Piazza Armerina, Troina and Nicosia.
Nevertheless, despite these rather modest figures, it should be underlined that the province of Enna holds the highest percentage of bed supply in non-hotel accommodation in the whole Sicily, with a significant proportion of farm tourism facilities (47.1%). This is a very relevant figure in consideration of the most recent tendencies of the demand of tourists, more and more interested in alternative forms of tourism.
In
conclusion, the potentials for a tourist development in the whole province of
Enna appear to be closely linked to the ability of the local moving spirits in
order to exploit the local resources properly, activating mechanisms of
endogenous development, by a system of integrated actions aiming to the
improvement of utilities, to the increase in facilities, to the preservation of
the environment, to the exploitation of the local products, to a better
integration among different productive sectors, to the diffusion of innovations,
to the formation and development of alternative tourism, such as rural and
cultural tourism, which appear to be very suitable to the features of the
territory. This is the main aim of PIT
11 – Enna: Tourism amid Archaeology and
Nature.
Trading
business and utilities.
A modest body of consumers, which led to a joint development between Enna and the near province of Caltanissetta, and the short distance between some communes (Catenanuova, Troina, Centuripe e Regalbuto) and the province of Catania, in which orbit they actually gravitate, are the factors affecting the improvement of the sector.
Slackness in business is confirmed by the low demand for trade licences, despite the short period of time needed for their issue.
The commercial structure is mainly composed of small-sized and very-small sized stores (80% of the associates to Confcommercio in Enna work in areas extended about 20 m2) characterized by low-income and by narrow margins of development. Due to the predominant family business, the risk of mortality is reduced.
Trade business still plays an important role for the employment, mostly in the form of single-person firm. For this reason, in spite of the diffusion of large-scale retail trade, the presence of traditional stores is still significant.
The sector of the Public Authority, like in other Southern regions poorly industrialized, plays such an important role in the local economy that it absorbs the main part of the employed in the province, together with the building business and agriculture.
Another sector whose significance should be pointed out is the one of private transportation, due to the presence in Enna of the most important transportation company in Sicily (SAIS).
For what the banking sector is concerned, there are two main features characterizing the province of Enna:
- on the one hand, the poor range in the offer of financial means
- on the other hand, the modest usage of locally-produced financial means.
Nevertheless, both the ratio between the population and the number of bank counters (2,861 inhabitants per counter compared to 3,003 in the whole Sicily) and the ratio between unpaid bills and loans (10.3% compared to 15% in the whole Sicily) appear to be positive.
Labour
market
The province of Enna, in accordance with the trend registered in almost every Southern area, is characterized by workforce mainly composed by young people: the age structure of the population reveals a very low ratio between over 64 and under 15 (103.8%), consistently under the national average; the unemployment rate is 22.3% (+2.2% compared to the regional average), the female unemployment rate is 35.1%, while the young is 62.3% (between 15 and 24 years old) and 45.3% (between 15 and 29 years old).
From a sectional point of view, the positive performance of the 2002 compared with the 1999 is probably determined by the increase in the number of the registered employees in the factory division (+46.7% that is 1,498 new workers) and in the sector of facilities (+14.7% that is 2,842 new workers). Positive performances, though less significant, have been recorded in the agricultural sector (+8.8% that is 457 new workers), in the building business (+3.7% that is 199 new workers) and in trade business (+4.9% that is 346 new workers).
Source: ISTAT