In San Marino, a building and furnishing district worth 460 million

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It’s not just a matter of leaner taxation. To create an “economic and social ecosystem favorable to entrepreneurship” in the small Republic of San Marino – a handkerchief of land measuring just over 60 sq km, nestled between Emilia-Romagna and the Marches – is a set of elements that among the strengths, according to the entrepreneurs themselves, a rapid and efficient legal and bureaucratic context, which reduces the time to start activities, obtain permits and manage and grow one’s business.

In recent years various industrial “clusters” have developed, which together generate almost 40% of the GDP of the entire Republic. One of the most important and historically developed is the one linked to the world of construction and the home.

A real district that has about twenty companies and generates a rapidly growing aggregate turnover of 461 million euros, and employs 1,785 people. A complete supply chain, explains Emanuel Colombini, director of the furniture group of the same name (the largest San Marino company in the sector, with around 300 million euros in aggregate turnover, 250 of which made by the three companies based in the small state), but also president of the Agency for Economic Development-Chamber of Commerce of San Marino, the local institution that supports and encourages entrepreneurial activities in the area.

«It includes various sectors, from building materials to fixtures and doors, from coverings to interior finishes and furnishings – explains Colombini -. There is also an important issue of skills, which owes much to the local training system, thanks to the faculties of engineering and industrial design, but also to the proximity to similar industrial districts in Emilia-Romagna and the Marches, with which over the decades ‘there has been and continues to be an important osmosis».

local realities

An osmosis of which the Colombini group itself is an expression, which has added Bontempi of Ancona, acquired two years ago, to the three San Marino companies. Or the Del Conca ceramic group, which takes its name from its largest company in terms of size (the Rimini-based Ceramica Del Conca), but whose parent company (Ceramica Faetano) is based in San Marino, precisely in Faetano. «The companies of our group operate in a totally integrated way – says the president of Ceramica Faetano, Paolo Mularoni -. Surely in San Marino it is easier and faster to deal with all the bureaucratic obligations. Not only thanks to streamlined legislation, but also because the country is small and it is easier for an entrepreneur to navigate the rules and know who to contact in case of need».