Milan

Italy COUNTRY

3,140,181 CITY POPULATION

City-Council GOVERNMENT TYPE

Introduction

Milan is one of the oldest cities in Europe that possess a rich history of 26 centuries or even more. It is a densely populated city that resides in the Lombardy region of Italy. Milan is considered a global capital of fashion and design. It is home to the national stock exchange and it’s a financial hub also known for its high-end restaurants and shops. The Gothic Duomo di Milano cathedral and the Santa Maria delle Grazie convent, housing Leonardo da Vinci’s mural “The Last Supper,” testify to centuries of art and culture. Milan is also famous for its lifestyle, nightlife, the daily hustle, fashion, food, music, art, etc.

Data and facts

As of 2018, Milan had a population of 1,395 million with a metropolitan area of 4,336 million.
Milan is considered as a symbol of recovery from World War 2.
In Milan lies the tallest building of Italy consisting of 32 floors and 127 m; the Pirelli tower.
La Scala is the largest opera house and it is situated in Milan. It has the capacity to hold 2000 people in the house.
7th of December is celebrated as national Milan's day, popularly called by the name "Feast of Saint Ambrose".
From 7 to 9 pm, the bars, and the cafes offer free food that you can have after buying a drink.

Administration

There are three different authorities namely the municipal, provincial and the regional ones. These exist in the region in which Milan falls. The elected body which comprises a mayor and council controls the activities of the city like the traffic, transportation, maintenance etc. The provincial body controls the nearby smaller areas and is responsible for taking infrastructure-related and cultural policies related decisions. The provincial government has been stepping down slowly because the nearby areas have started to acquire the position of the province themselves. Regional government forms after the election and is consistent to be the most powerful of all the three.

Economy

Milan is the most important city of Italy in terms of the economy. In fact, Milan is the country's industrial and financial heart. With a 2014 GDP estimated at €158.9 billion, the province of Milan generates approximately 10% of the national GDP; while the economy of the Lombardy region generates approximately 22% of Italy's GDP (or an estimated €357 billion in 2015, roughly the size of Belgium). The province of Milan is home to about 45% of businesses in the Lombardy region and more than 8 percent of all businesses in Italy, including three Fortune 500 companies.

Milan is Italy's largest financial hub. The main national insurance companies and banking groups (for a total of 198 companies) and over forty foreign insurance and banking companies are located in the city, as well as a number of asset management companies, including Azimut Holding, ARCA SGR, and Eurizon Capital. The Associazione Bancaria Italiana representing the Italian banking system, and Milan Stock Exchange (225 companies listed on the stock exchange) are both located in the city.

It is also a major industrial and manufacturing centre. Alfa Romeo automobile company and Falck steel group employed thousands of workers in the city until the closure of their sites in Arese in 2004 and Sesto San Giovanni in 1995. Other global industrial companies, such as Edison, Pirelli, Prysmian Group, Riva Group, Saras, Saipem and Techint maintain their headquarters and significant employment in the city and its suburbs

The city is home to numerous media and advertising agencies, national newspapers and telecommunication companies, including both the public service broadcaster RAI and private television companies like Mediaset, La7 and Sky Italia.

Milan is one of the fashion capitals of the world, where the sector can count on 12,000 companies, 800 showrooms, and 6,000 sales outlets; the city hosts the headquarters of global fashion houses such as Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Luxottica, Prada, Versace, Valentino, Zegna and four weeks a year are dedicated to fashion events. The city is also a global hub for event management and trade fairs.

Business environment

Milan has been identified as the largest startup and business hub of the country. Porta Nuova, the main business district of Milan and one of the most important in Europe, hosts the Italian headquarters of numerous global companies, such as Accenture, AXA, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Celgene, China Construction Bank, Finanza & Futuro Banca, FinecoBank, FM Global, Herbalife, HSBC, KPMG, Maire Tecnimont, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Panasonic, Samsung, Shire, Tata Consultancy Services, Telecom Italia, UniCredit, UnipolSai. Other large multinational service companies, such as Allianz, Generali, Alleanza Assicurazioni and PricewaterhouseCoopers, have their headquarters in the recently built towers of the CityLife business district, a new 900-acre-wide (3.6 km2) development project designed by prominent modernist architects Zaha Hadid, Daniel Liebskind and Arata Isozaki.

Infrastructure

Milan is a geographical framework that also makes it a hotspot for the various trades. Milan not only connects various parts of the country but it is also the connecting link between Italy and Europe.Milan is one of southern Europe's key transport nodes and one of Italy's most important railway hubs. Its five major railway stations, such as the Milan Central station, are among Italy's busiest.

Azienda Trasporti Milanesi (ATM) is the statutory corporation responsible for the transport network in Milan; it operates 4 metro lines (Milan Metro), 18 tram lines, 67 urban bus lines, 4 trolleybus lines, and 52 interurban bus lines, carrying over 734 million passengers in 2010. Overall the network covers nearly 1,500 km (932 mi) reaching 46 municipalities. Besides public transport, ATM manages the interchange parking lots and other transportation services including bike sharing and carsharing systems.

Technology

Milan has been ranked 1st Italian smart city for the fifth consecutive year by the ICity Rate 2018 report, and 2nd on Ernst & Young’s Italian smart city index 2016, following closely behind Bologna.

Milan considers the idea of a smart city as being not technology-driven, but centred on its citizens. The concept ‘smart city’ for Milan covers smart mobility, a smart environment, and smart inclusion and citizenship. This sets out a bold agenda, which will see the re-orientation of demand for transport services; the standardisation of payment technologies and methods; and the adoption of a range of energy-efficiency solutions. In the chapters on smart economy and smart Europe, the city’s smart city plan sets out how the new sectors of the city economy should be developed to ensure economic vitality and competitiveness, and how these sectors can be enhanced via networks, resources and partnerships in Europe and across the world.

The demonstration of Sharing Cities’ solutions will focus on the Porta Romana / Vettabbia area, which is under complete re-development. Its renewal will connect the historic centre of the city to its agricultural belt by joining together two geographically, economically and socially separated areas.

Social wellness and human resources

Rome is considered the capital city but Milan is known as the moral capital of the country. The people still believe and express their campanilismo (the ancient religionism). Milan is highly populated and it resulted in the formation of urban villages in the countryside. Besides immigrants from different parts of Italy, Milan also hosts a high number of abroad immigrants.