Italy's PM announces red tape cutting drive to boost investment

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told parliament on Thursday his government was preparing a raft of reforms to cut red tape, improve company governance and encourage investment to revive the coronavirus-battered economy. Conte promised a so-called 'simplification decree' to attract foreign capital by streamlining bureaucratic procedures, and said Rome would help the recapitalisation of companies hit by the pandemic. 'If we do not succeed in simplifying procedures even in a condition of absolute emergency, I say this very frankly, I doubt that it will be possible to do so in the future', he told the Chamber of Deputies. Italy's complex bureaucracy has long been blamed as one of the causes of its anaemic economic growth, and red tape delayed financial aid promised to business and families during a rigid lockdown to try to curb coronavirus contagion.