Italy ranks 17th in Global Attractiveness Index as study urges high-tech reforms

Global ranking and foreign direct investment

The TEHA Group presented its Global Attractiveness Index 2026 at the 52nd Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, ranking Italy 17th globally with an improved score of 62.1 points, up from 60.8. Italy finished ahead of Austria, the Czech Republic, Spain, and Belgium, and has moved up five places since 2022. The United States retained the first position with a score of 100, followed by China at 93.1 points, while Singapore climbed to third place with 85.1 points, overtaking Germany at 82.7 points. Foreign direct investment inflows fell across southern and western Europe in 2025, dropping 27% in Italy, 36% in France, and 29% in Spain amid trade tensions and disruptions along the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz.

The high-tech investment gap

A companion report titled "Sbloccare il futuro", produced jointly by TEHA, Amazon, and AWS, evaluated Italy's high-tech investment landscape. High-tech investments in Italy represent 1.3% of gross domestic product, trailing the European Union average of 1.9% by 32%. Only 7.9% of Italian companies reach a very high level of digital intensity, compared to an EU average of 10.1%. The digital gap is heavily concentrated among smaller enterprises, where only 34% report high or very high digital intensity, compared with 82% among large corporations. Closing the technology investment gap would add up to 27 billion euros to Italian GDP, representing more than 1% of total output.

Energy, bureaucracy, and skills bottlenecks

The joint study identified three specific structural constraints affecting Italian competitiveness. On energy, Italy imported 74% of its available supply in 2024, compared to an EU average of 57%, leaving domestic businesses paying power prices up to 30% above European benchmarks alongside slower photovoltaic permitting than in Germany. On administration, Italy maintains approximately 160,000 active laws, with one in five approved statutes remaining unimplemented and 3 billion euros in public funds halted by bureaucratic bottlenecks. On workforce training, Italy has 40% fewer university graduates than the EU average, leaving three out of every five businesses unable to recruit qualified staff.

Diego Begnozzi, senior consultant at TEHA Group, addressed the administrative burden during the forum.

The primary priority according to us, at this time when actions cannot have a high impact on state accounts, is to act on the lever of debureaucratization.

Reform proposals and corporate initiatives

The report outlined policy remedies including fast-track permitting for renewable power, a unified administrative channel for large tech investments, and expanded vocational programs in science and technology. Alec Ross, an innovation policy scholar at Bologna Business School, told attendees that excessive regulation imposes an ongoing tax on Italian growth without delivering economic returns. Amazon country manager Giorgio Busnelli reported that Amazon has invested over 30 billion euros in Italy since 2010, employing 19,000 permanent staff and supporting more than 20,000 small and medium-sized vendors. Busnelli confirmed that the company aims to train 200,000 Italian students in STEM subjects by 2026 to help address the national skills deficit.

Our experience confirms what this research demonstrates: when a country attracts high-tech investments, the benefits propagate to the entire economic system, in terms of employment, innovation and competitiveness.