The Cassa del Mezzogiorno (English: "Fund for the South") was a public effort by the government of Italy to stimulate economic growth and development in the less developed Southern Italy (also known as the Mezzogiorno).
It was established in 1950 primarily to encourage the development of public works and infrastructure (roads, bridges, hydroelectric and irrigation) projects, and to provide credit subsidies and tax advantages to promote investments.
A reason as to why the project failed is also because the various organized criminal syndicates used the funds for other purposes.
The government-led industry that was created was marginal, but the need for skilled labour led to a drop in southern unemployment.
Italian journalist Luigi Barzini also noted that funds were usually given to major Italian companies to build large scale, highly automated manufacturing plants, requiring huge amounts of money to build and needing minimal staffing due to the automated nature of the plants.