Italy entrusts the responsibility for the development of small municipalities to Poste Italiane. These are the words of an article appeared in Frankfurter Allgemeine. The article signed by Christian Schubert reports on the presentation event of the Polis Project, thanks to which “thousands of post offices in small municipalities will be improved thanks to new services, ranging from the issue of documents such as residence or birth certificates, to services for the community such as recharging stations for electric cars. In some small towns, there will even be co-working spaces.”
A point of reference
The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella – FAZ continues – called “post offices an ineliminable point of reference for the Italian identity. The project, which will cost EUR 1.2 billion – EUR 800 million of which financed by Europe – is relatively simple for Poste and Italy. Poste is targeting post offices in 7,000 municipalities with less than 15,000 inhabitants, and a significant part of the services should be available 24 hours a day through ‘digital one-stop shops’.” According to FAZ, this project should also contribute to recovering “digital slowness in rural areas, particularly in southern Italy.”
Poste against depopulation
“In Italy, as in other countries,” continues the newspaper directed by Thomas Lindner, “the flight from rural areas to the big cities is huge.” “The ageing of society is accelerating the process of desertification of rural areas, with many areas having only an ageing and shrinking population. Stopping this trend is an ambitious goal for Poste,” the newspaper continued, pointing out that “the company has invested heavily in recent years and will soon also offer electricity and gas contracts.”
FAZ analysis
Unlike other postal companies abroad and Italian banks, Poste Italiane has not reduced the number of offices much: “In 2019, Poste presented a programme to improve its services in communities with a maximum of 5,000 inhabitants.” “No other insurance company or bank in Italy has such a large distribution force as Poste Italiane’s network of post offices,” says J.P. Morgan analyst Farooq Hanif, quoted by FAZ.
