AOSTA VALLEY New life for the customs When customs checks on freight at EU internal borders came to an end, the Pollein- Brissogne customs checkpoint near Aosta lost 90% of its work and 300 of its employees. This large area, on the motorway running from France and Switzerland to the most highly industrialised parts of Italy, and thus in a very strategic position, has been redeveloped. It is now used for freight storage and trade in goods and services. Thanks to the ERDF-funded Interreg Programme, the Aosta Valley regional authorities and the European Union have begun to improve the area’s infrastructure, providing for: • a building to be used for freight handling and storage, customs offices to deal with trade with third countries and a hypermarket; • a “management” building housing offices, hotels, restaurants and shops; • a “communications tower”, which will play a technical role. The project is scheduled for completion in 2003, but the hypermarket opened in 1999 and some of the offices have already been completed. When operating at full capacity, the former customs checkpoint will provide about 500 jobs. A high-technology enterprise development centre At the end of 1997, with ERDF funding, an enterprise development centre was set up on an area left free following the closure in 1985 of the Ilssa-Viola aluminium plant, one of the most important industrial enterprises in the Aosta Valley. The task of the development centre, which employs about 60 people, is to help high-technology companies become established and to provide them with offices, secretarial services, conference and meeting rooms and multimedia facilities. The centre can house a maximum of seven companies. Five are already installed and the selection of a further two is under way. These are companies with a high development potential that are starting out in business. They are involved in state-of-the-art high technology sectors, such as the production of lasers for precision marking on metal, the design and production of graphic boards for computers and of electronic components for the aeronautics industry. Many other companies have asked to be housed in the centre but there is unfortunately not enough room for them all. AOSTA VALLEY AUTONOMOUS REGION Piazza Accademia S. Anselmo, 2 11100 Aosta - Italia Tel: +39 0165 23 81 81 Fax: +39 0165 31 373 E-mail: [email protected] .