"The Information and Communication Technology sector in Apulia is in full recovery. After the 2.4% decline recorded in 2020, the Apulian digital market – valued just under three billion – is regaining ground, resuming the steady growth seen in recent years. Despite the difficulties companies face in finding all the specific professionals, whom the university system can only partially train, the upward trend has resumed. As demonstrated by the results of Exprivia, active in ICT and listed on the MTA market of the Milan Stock Exchange, in the first quarter, the revenue of this big player – total revenues in 2020 at 167.8 million, 2,400 professionals distributed in 7 countries worldwide – grew by 5.4% compared to the same period in 2020, rising from 38 to 41 million. Profitability has grown and continues to grow, which in 2020 was 12.7 percent. 'Companies,' explains Gianni Sebastiano, Investor Relator of the group led by Domenico Favuzzi, 'are recovering profitability because they are revising their processes. The more digitalization you put into processes, the more you impact efficiency and costs: this is the great lesson of the pandemic.' The Apulian company aims to consolidate the growth recorded in recent months in all the markets in which it operates as a system integrator: public administration, banks, aerospace, local health, telemedicine." (from "Il Sole 24 ore" 28 June 2021) Indicate which of the following statements is not correct:
- Athe growth of the Apulian digital sector is due to, among other reasons, revisions in company processes.✓
- Bdespite shortages in the number of adequate professionals, the Apulian digital sector has recorded increased profitability over the past year.✓
- Cthe pandemic ensured the growth of the Apulian digital sector because companies in the sector transformed into digital companies.✓
- Dthe pandemic was one the factors that led to the digitalization of company processes.✓
- Ethe digitalization of company processes is one of the principle causes for the economic growth of the sector.✓
Correct answer: C
the pandemic ensured the growth of the Apulian digital sector because companies in the sector transformed into digital companies.
Full explanation
This passage credits Apulia’s ICT recovery to companies revising their internal processes and pushing further into digitalisation — Gianni Sebastiano’s own quote frames the pandemic as "the great lesson," the trigger that pushed firms to digitalize, not the direct cause of their growth. Revenue and profitability figures (Exprivia’s 5.4% growth, rising margins) back up that the sector is genuinely recovering, even while a shortage of trained professionals holds it back.
The question asks for the statement that is not correct. Options A, B, D and E all track the passage closely: process revision improved efficiency and profits (A), the sector grew despite the staffing shortage (B), the pandemic is credited as the lesson behind digitalization (D), and digitalizing processes fed back into growth (E). Option C overstates the case — the passage never says the pandemic itself "ensured" growth or that companies "transformed into digital companies"; it says the pandemic highlighted why digitalization matters, and that companies are now revising their processes as a result. That gap between what the passage says and what option C claims is what makes C the answer.
📚 Summary to learn
Passages describing a sector's recovery often distinguish a trigger for change from the direct cause of an outcome. Here, the pandemic is credited as "the great lesson" — the wake-up call that pushed companies to revise their processes and digitalise — while the actual growth is driven by those internal changes and by data such as rising revenue and profit margins. A statement that collapses this distinction, claiming the pandemic itself "ensured" the growth or single-handedly "transformed" companies, overstates what the passage says, even though every individual fact it cites (the decline, the recovery, the staffing shortage) may be accurate on its own.