Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi promised sweeping reforms to cut down on bureaucracy, improve competitiveness and spur growth as he outlined an ambitious agenda for next year on Thursday that he hopes will reverse a recent drop in his approval rating.
Speaking at a traditional end-of-the-year news conference, Prodi said his center-left government plans to minimize business red tape to allow companies to be set up in one day, attract foreign investment and unveil a new environmental policy and an energy savings scheme.
Liberalizing sectors of Italy's rigid industry is also high on the agenda of the prime minister, who said that "no area can be protected from competition."
Prodi, who took over at the helm of a center-left coalition after winning April elections, also suggested he might not seek another term if he completes his mandate, set to expire in 2011.
"I think five years' work are enough," said the 67-year-old former EU Commission president. Prodi already served as Italian prime minister between 1996-1998.
Prodi said a pension reform that has raised the prospect of massive confrontation with Italy's powerful unions and possibly of a strike will not be harsh. The reform is seen as a major test of cohesion for the ruling majority, which is still reeling from having pushed through parliament a controversial budget for next year.
"The coalition will decide as a whole, with unions and business representatives," Prodi said, seeking to play down mounting tensions over the pension issue.
Prodi offered few details about how to implement his agenda, as government officials are set to work them out during a two-day gathering in the southern Italian city of Caserta on Jan. 11.
But he insisted that spurring growth in the euro zone's third-largest economy would be the main goal of his Cabinet's action in the new year.
"2007 will be the year of the turnaround," he promised.
But with an unwieldy coalition and minimal majority in parliament, Prodi faces a tough challenge. Opposition politicians were quick on Thursday to label the government's agenda as unrealistic.
"Lying, lying, lying!" said Roberto Calderoli, a senator with the right-wing populist Northern League party.
Prodi has seen his popularity, and that of his government, decline in recent weeks, according to opinion polls published in the Italian media.
The drop was largely attributed to a tough budget that includes 35 billion euros (US$46 billion) in revenue-raising measures and spending cuts.
The budget has been criticized at home and abroad as relying too heavily on tax hikes rather than tackling public spending.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not