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Located in the Eastern part of the Padana lowland, the province of Venice (people: 836,596) forms a semicircle along the Adriatic Sea, from the source of the Tagliamento River to the North to the Adige in the South, for a coastline development of approx. 96 km. It borders with the provinces of Udine (to the East), Pordenone and Treviso (North), Padova and Rovigo (West and South respectively) and represents the outlet to the sea of one of the richest and most productive areas of the Country.
The area has the required infrastructure of a big metropolitan area: the passenger and commercial port at Venice, the industrial, commercial and petroleum port at Marghera, the commercial and fishing port of Chioggia, the international airport of Marco Polo of Tessera (third Italian hub for scheduled passengers) and the tourist airport Nicelli in the Lido of Venice.
A modern network of motorways allows an efficient connection nationally (Milan-Turin, Bologna-Florence-Rome, Ravenna-Ancona) and internationally (Bavaria, Tyrol and the Balkans). A dense network of long distance national routes, an articulated waterway system, excellent national and international railway connections, position the area in a strategic location in relation to the Mediterranean, Italy and Central Europe.

Venice is an important junction of the Trans-European Corridor no. 5 – the large rail and motorway axis which the EU has undertaken to construct by 2015 and which, along a West-East axis, will connect Barcelona  to Kiev – and be able to exploit the logistic directrix with the basin of Eastern Europe.

The most recent data processed by the Istituto G. Tagliacarne of Rome (2007) related to the province of Venice show that added value comes from the following: 1.2% from agriculture, 20.4% from industry, 6.9% from building industry, and 71.4% from the tertiary industry .

In 2008, the labour force in the Venice province amounts to over 371,000. Of these 58% are men and the remaining 42% women. The rate of provincial activity (the labour force and the population ratio between 15 and 64 years of age) is equal, according to the Istat findings, to 65.7%, against a regional level of 68.9%.
The employment rate (ratio between employees and population between 15 and 64 years of age) of the Venice province is 63.3% (the rate of the Veneto Region is equal to 66.4%), while the unemployment rate (ratio between job-seekers and labour force) is 3.6%, in accordance with what recorded for the Veneto Region.
Of the total number of employed people (358 thousand), 2.4% find work in agriculture, 29% in industry, and 68.4% in commerce and services.

The import/export flows are showing a decreasing tend. In 2008 exportations, settled to about 4.5 milliard Euro (provisional data), decreased by 15.7%, thus showing a slightly worst trend if compared with that of the Veneto Region (-4,6%).
In comparison with 2007, the most important sectors of the province affected by this negative trend in exports are: the means of transport sector (-41,4%), the metal and metal products sector
(-28.3%), and  the chemical products, plastic materials and artificial fibres sector (-25.7%). On the other hand, increases occurred in the machinery and mechanical equipment sector (+5.6%), in the food products sector (+16.3%), in the textile products and clothing sector(+5.4%), and in the refined petroleum products sector (+5.7%) as well.

As regards the other productions typical of the Venetian province, there was a dicrease in the exports of “footwear” (-13.7%), of “glass and glass products” (-14%), and of furniture (-7,1%). The export flow of “lighting equipment and electrical lights” recorded  a slight decrease (-1.1%) over 2007.

Europe is still among the main partners of the province even if the export flows towards European countries recorded a decrease by 4.4% compared with 2007: among these countries, Switzerland recorded an increase by 40.8%, and the Russian Federation by 10.8%. Sales towards EU-Countries showed a decrease by 20.7% for Germany and by 2.2% for France, while the sales volume towards Austria registered +8.2% compared with 2007.
Export flows towards NAFTA-Countries (U.S.A., Canada, Mexico) showed a decrease by 16.7% for the U.S.A., but the increase by 31.6% in the export towards Canada and by 31% towards Mexico is noteworthy.
The Mercosur-Countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela) reported a decrease in exports by 14.7% in comparison with 2007. Clean decreases in exports also for China and Japan which recorded -28.6% and  -27% respectively if compared with the previous year.
Bright spots from Middle-East and Asian Countries: exports from the province of Venice showed increases towards Kuwait (+78.7%), Bahrein (+63.6%), Lebanon (+47.1%), Iran (+28.6%), Azerbaijan (+66.3%), India (+31.7%).

As regards the imports, the province of Venice registered a negative result (-7% compared with 2007) even if the total import value remains over the total export value. Venice is in the fourth place in the Veneto Region after Verona, Vicenza and Treviso with a rate of 14.3%. Among the supplying countries the first place goes to Libya (-8.4%), followed by Germany (-5.9%), U.S.A. (-8.5% compared with 2007), and France (+12.8%).
In 2008 the total import/export flow value of the province of Venice showed a deficit in the balance of trade of about 881 million Euro. This value is 200 million Euro higher than the value recorded in the previous year.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
The province of Venice distinguishes itself for the variety of production sectors:

• the port and airport system and the associated intermodal and logistics services which have been recognised by the Veneto Region (Law 8/2003 of the Veneto Region and subsequent amendments) as “Metadristretto Logistico Veneto”, involving the sector’s businesses of the provinces of Verona, Padua, Venice and Treviso.
• tourism and hotel and restaurant services: spread out, beyond Venice, among the Venetian villas along the Riviera del Brenta, and along the entire coastline, with a total of about 8,000 operational tourist activities. Data of the Venice Province-Tourism sector – relating to 2008 - show almost 7.3 million arrivals (71.5% foreign citizens) and over 33 million presences, 65.7% of these were foreign tourists. The “Metadistretto turistico della Regione Veneto MDTV” – the Touristic Cluster of the Veneto Region (Law 8/2003 of the Veneto Region and subsequent amendments) is worth of a mention: it is the first regional “metadistretto” for tourism in Italy which counts in 1,235 touristic enterprises and 23,760 employees. This cluster was created to improve the presence and the visibility of the Veneto Region tourism system in the great tourist world routes through a unique brand and its credibility.
• the agricultural and food industry which includes some of the most important cereal productions of Eastern Veneto, including corn, wheat and barley, the industrial cultivation of soya and beetroot, the horticulture with the renowned radish of Chioggia; the wines produced mainly in the eastern area of the province, around Portogruaro, with the famous doc area of Lison-Pramaggiore, and the equally well known wines of the Piave, around San Donà di Piave, as well as the new DOC wines of “Riviera del Brenta” and “Corti Benedettine del Padovano”, located in the western part of the province. 

Many important production companies of mineral water and soft drinks, food pastes and canning companies are also present;

• fishing and aquaculture, hinged on the marine of Chioggia and on lagoon fish farming, yield precious varieties like gilthead and bass;
• the industrial centre of Porto Marghera where there are the chemical, gas and energy processing, plastic materials, pottery and industrial glass as well as the engineering and iron and steel sectors;
• the means of transport sector, which groups together the shipyard industry, famous worldwide for having built some of the biggest naval ships in the world (within the sector, the Cluster of the Venetian nautical shipyard work has also been recognised with Law 8/2003 of the Veneto Region and subsequent amendments), the sector of aeroplanes, specialised in the development, maintenance and construction of parts of vehicles (businesses of this sector have created the “Veneto Cluster of Airspace and Astrophysics – SKYD” which is going to be recognized by the Veneto Region); as well as the production of motorcycles and spare parts for the motoring industry;
• the Footwear Cluster, including mostly enterprises located in the Riviera del Brenta area, and the Artistic Glass of Murano cluster, sectors of ancient productive tradition and internationally renowned. These have been reconfirmed as important productive sectors by Law no. 8 of 2003 of the Veneto Region and subsequent amendments. The former gains 90% of sales from exports; the latter exports over 50% of the value produced;
• the technological hub of nanotechnology which involves the Ministry of Education, University and Research, the Veneto Region, the Municipalities, the Provinces and the Chambers of Commerce of Venice and Padua. Its main goal is – through the Veneto Nanotech shareholding consortium - to incite companies to become acquainted with and apply the nanotechnology to their own production processes, and at the same time to make the Veneto Region a fertile environment in this sector, through the attraction of research centres and training of excellence;
• METAS – Metadistretto Veneto dell’Ambiente per lo Sviluppo Sostenibile/Venetian Cluster of Environment for Sustainable Development, with its head office in the same establishment of VEGA – The Technology and Science Park in Venice Marghera. This is an atypical cluster compared to other productive clusters, and the first in Italy fostering the aggregation of companies, institutions, public authorities that deal with environment activities in various ways. METAS is made by more than 400 companies and institutions, e.g.: The National Research Council (CNR), the University IUAV of Venice and the University of Ca’ Foscari of Venice, the Town Planning National Institute, Local Governments, Trade Associations an Voluntary Organizations;

• the Veneto Region has recognized the Veneto cultural heritage “Metadistretto”  which group together the enterprises operating in the sector of restoration and preservation of movable and immovable cultural assets.

Further information about clusters in the province of Venice and in the Veneto Region are available at following web site: http://www.distrettidelveneto.it/.   

To finish, there is a well-organised presence of small enterprises like for example the textiles-clothing-knitwear and furniture sectors. The first is developed mainly in the Municipalities of Cavarzere, Cona and Chioggia. The production of furniture is located mainly in the eastern area of the Venetian province.

PROSPECTS
The efforts of the Venetian public system are geared to encouraging internationalisation of the Small-Medium –sized enterprises of the province, with particular regard to integration of the same within the Veneto area – one of the most advanced production systems in Europe- and with the emerging markets of the Mediterranean area and Central and Eastern Europe. Priority is given to the ten Countries who joined the European Union on 1st May 2004 (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta and Cyprus), and to Romania and Bulgaria, EU-Members from 1/1/2007 without forgetting the opportunities offered  by markets like China, India, Russia and Brazil.

At the same time it is vital to promote the tourist attractions of Venice, which make it a unique holiday destination as well as the potential offered by the coast and the villas of the Riviera del Brenta, combining the demands of a cultural based tourism of art cities with that of food and drink and seaside tourism. Here it is necessary to continue to improve the infrastructure and connections with initiatives geared to specific segments of the market (for example cruise traffic, connections with the Far East, high speed ferries).

The natural complement of these strategies is the Environment and the need to direct growth towards a “sustainable development” from an economic but also from a social and environmental point of view.
The objective, therefore, is to improve the quality of the economy and not only its quantitative growth.
The search for forms of renewable alternative and clean energy, like that generated by hydrogen, is an example of the challenges which the industry gravitating around the centre of Porto Marghera must  necessarily tackle over the coming years.

The first projects of urban renewal have already produced important results, like the Science and Technological Park of Marghera, incubator of businesses operating in the field of research, new materials, biotechnology and I.T.  

Finally, as regards the historical centre of Venice, it is essential to tackle the problem of the high water and resolve the problem of mobility and building in the city, which is strongly penalising the social structure.