The Italian Entrepreneurial Crisis During COVID-19. Investments in Algeria as a Possible International Opportunity for the Relaunch of our Companies

The world economy is severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Italy is certainly one of the most affected countries in terms of health with over 35,000 victims to date and with a decrease of 12.8% of GDP in the 2nd quarter of 2020, mainly caused by the temporary closure or bankruptcy of many companies during the lockdown period. To restart, Italian entrepreneurs cannot rely only on current government aid which is not going to be immediately available, nor on the Recovery Fund granted by the EU which will probably become effective from mid-2021. The restart must take place immediately and, to do so, it is also necessary to aim at obtaining possible financing and profit from investment opportunities offered by the developing countries that are interested in foreign know-how. Among the opportunities offered by the international present context it is worth considering the possibility of investing in one of the most active countries in the Maghreb area, namely Algeria which is undoubtedly one of the most interesting markets for Italian investments in the coming years, due to various factors: its excellent bilateral relations with Italy, both economic and commercial, the geographical proximity and the common Mediterranean view, the cooperation on security and terrorism and the huge funding agreed by the two governments to encourage the creation of mixed start-ups on the Algerian territory. The research carried out started from the analysis of macroeconomic data, analyzing the business climate of the Maghreb territory with particular attention to the international economic development policies in the area, which could represent a chance to relaunch Italian companies. Afterwards, while in no way pretending to be exhaustive, the research, supported by the data collected from the questionnaire submitted to the main Italian operators in the area, highlighted their difficulties in doing business in recent years, and supplied a possible indication of the opportunities to be seized and the threats to be minimized on the territory by future Italian investors.