Planning and Industrial Developments in Apulia

Abstract

In July 1965, the life of the Cassa per il Mezzogiorno (The Southern Fund) was prolonged for fifteen years by the Italian Government, and nearly £1,000 million allotted to it for expenditure up to 1970. The Cassa was founded at the end of 1950 to co-ordinate the main lines of economic development in Italy’s backward and impoverished South; to invest government and other public capital in these measures and, by infrastructure provision, to attract private capital into the region. Since the Cassa began operations in 1951, over £2,100 million has been poured into the Mezzogiorno (South). In many areas striking changes are becoming apparent, particularly in parts of the Molise, Apulia and Campania where effective land reform, irrigation developments and the successful establishment of co-operatives are transforming considerable areas of the rural landscape.