He plan with which Pedro Sánchez announced last Tuesday a battery of measures to deal with the catastrophe caused by the floods in Valenciahas not exactly raised the spirits of the most affected business sectors in that territory.
The feeling among Valencian businessmen is practically unanimous: lThe 10.6 billion euros announced by the President of the Government They will not be enough given the magnitude of the debacle that has devastated entire municipalities and the large losses generated.
The regional employers’ association, the Business Confederation of the Valencian Community (CEV), considers that direct aid “depending on the case, it may fall short”. In his initial assessment, Although he believes that aid is going “in the right direction”, he insists that “more intensity in aid will be needed in the long term”. CEV expects that what has been announced so far is only a first step towards a reconstruction plan.
For businessmen who have directly suffered water damage, outside the ground zero the extent of the disaster is still unknown. “We are talking about a phenomenon that “It has affected one in every three inhabitants and one in every three companies in Valencia.”explains Rafael Torres, president of the trade association Confecomerçone of the sectors with the most businesses hit. Torres describes “ridiculously insufficient” the global figure and trusts that it will be “an appetizer”. He estimates that at least 8,000 businesses may be affected, of which about 5,000 are located in the so-called ground zero, many in “total damage.”
A vision shared by the hospitality sector, another of the activities with the greatest number of people affected, “An aid of 5,000 euros for a self-employed person to raise the shutters of a bar or cafeteria as they have been left is laughable”assures Manuel Espinar, president of the Valencia Hospitality Business Federation (FEHV). His own situation illustrates the day to day life. Two of its three stores are in Beniparrell and Catarroja, in the epicenter of the disaster, and one of them is destroyed. A situation in which there are more than 1,000 bars and restaurants in the most damaged municipalities.
Much worse than the pandemic
For many businessmen, one of the Government’s indicators to quantify their plan, the funds and guarantees that were requested during the Covid crisis, does not serve as a reference. “This is worse than the pandemicin what We closed but our businesses were intact. Now the premises and the region have disappeared“, according to Espinar, who shows his concern for recovery in an environment of “brutal depression.”
The global amount is not the only point that raises suspicions. “When we talk about aid it has to be real aid and in this case 5,000 million of the plan are guarantees. It is asking those who are destroyed and have nothing to give to go into a little more debt,” says the president of Confecomerç, who recalls that many are still carrying the Covid ICOs. For the trade employers, The 3.5 billion euros from the Insurance Compensation Consortium cannot be classified as aid either.. “That mechanism exists to cover situations like this to those who have been paying their insurance. It is not an alms, it is an obligation“.
From the Valencian Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs (FVET)consider that the plan published in the BOE contains deficiencies by sticking too closely to what was approved for the pandemic at the time. Especially, point to the demands that companies have their domicile in the affected populationswhen in the meetings with the administrations it was stated that they would focus on the activitynot in the postal code of the headquarters. Nor have they been included in their case in the standard the announcement that the Consortium’s compensation for vehicles would be 20% higher than the appraisal value.
Furniture and agriculture
The south of the Valencia metropolitan area is the cradle of the regional furniture industrywho has suffered “a very strong blow”in the words of Kiko Torrent, vice president of the Wood and Furniture Business Federation of the Valencian Community (Fevama). “The figures are catastrophic, more than 60% of the furniture industry is in the ground zero“he points out.
The employers consider that it will be necessary a specific aid plan for the recovery of the furniture due to its peculiarity “in that companies have on average only 5.9 employees.”
He Campo is another of the great victims which also calls for a specific plan. According to Carles Peris, general secretary of La Unió, “in the first approved lines there is nothing developed for the agricultural sector.” They have also detected that the aid to the self-employed to cease activity as contemplated in the decree is not applicable to their sector, “because in the case of agricultural operations, even if production cannot be produced, work will be done to be able to recover crops or in other fields. “.
Agility and speed, keys
Speed and agility in aid is one of the priorities ten days after the catastrophe. The president of the Valencia Chamber, José Vicente Morata, insisted to the Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, that speed “is vital for survival.” Especially alarming is the case of the auxiliary automobile industry, which warned the minister of the risk of losing competitiveness if activity is not resumed soon.
The vice president of Fevama, Kiko Torrent, also urges to speed up the procedures and “that politicians do not complicate it,” because companies right now “are discovering new damage day by day.”
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