Source: press office of the Presidency of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso Belluno|Dolomiti
Speech by President Mario Pozza at the Loyalty to Work and Economic Progress awards ceremony and at the “Social Innovation and Sustainable Development” award ceremony.
Castelfranco Veneto 18 October 2021
Good Afternoon,
Your Excellency Mr Prefect
Dear Mayor and President of the Province of Treviso
Dear Mayors
Civil, military and religious authorities
Dear award recipients and families of award recipients who wanted to be present in large numbers on this day of celebration which, at last, after two years, is being organised in the presence of
a two-year delay compared to the schedule we had planned.
The Ceremony has been divided into 4 parts to allow both a respectful participation to the constraints that still force us to have an attention and care for the rules of social distancing, but
at the same time we took this opportunity for a presence in the territories of the two provinces of Treviso and Belluno, to bear witness to the bond that the Chamber of Commerce wants to have with
the places where businesses OPERATE, alongside the institutions, demonstrating our sense of COMMUNITY that has distinguished us in these months where everything has slowed down and where we have
understood, a little more, in the limitation of relations and relationships, how important it is to be and build our civil, social and economic COMMUNITY.
We have all suffered the loss or illness of a dear family member or relative or friend/colleague, and we have all, particularly those who run businesses, suffered from the crisis generated by
the lack of work and the slowdown in production activities.
We have reinvented a new way of working, of thinking about services for our communities, think of healthcare, schools, transport, we have experienced an acceleration of immaterial relations
through the internet, the smart phone, the computer.
But no one has been abandoned, no one has lost their way.
Thanks to the strong sense of community that persists in our territories and is part of the DNA of our people and fortunately also of the institutions represented today by the mayors.
The civil and social institutions, from those closest to us (the municipalities, the Region, the Chamber of Commerce, the trade associations, etc.) to those furthest away, the Government, the
European and international institutions, have suddenly all become closer, pulling together towards a single goal: that of overcoming the difficulties generated by the health crisis. And we have
succeeded.
Today, a new challenge awaits us: that of restarting safely and above all that of maintaining the ability to MAKE A TEAM in our communities and above all in the institutions, starting with
politics.
The next few months will be decisive in making good use of the resources that are available to modernise the country and hand over to our children better conditions in terms of job
opportunities, respect for the environment, energy sustainability and the growth and repositioning of our economic activities.
We always hear people say “it will never be the same again”, but even now it is not the same and the economic recovery we are experiencing can only be maintained and strengthened if we are
aware that the COHESION we have experienced in the last two years is a value that must always accompany us, putting small groups and minorities that accentuate divisions and violence in the
corner. We have not given the international community a good show these days.
On this day dedicated to your paths of fidelity to the value of work, it seems important to us to recall, in brief, what the numbers are and above all the trends taking place in your economic
context.
Today the tools to read and monitor our economic reality are there and we must use them, we must all contribute to building them, and I am sorry that in our province of Treviso, the only one in
Veneto, there is still a strong majority of mayors who go their own way.
The tool of the one-stop shop for productive activities provided free of charge by the chambers of commerce is still not used by all the municipalities, thus slowing down the flow of information
and creating disparity and disorientation among entrepreneurs and professionals who have to operate in different ways from municipality to municipality.
We are pushing for a national rule that would oblige all administrations to use a single access port to public administration services, thus simplifying life for businesses and making
administrative information immediately available to everyone. As was done 25 years ago for the filing of company balance sheets.
Today, there is a single national model for filing balance sheets electronically with the Chamber of Commerce, and within an instant, the balance sheets are made available to everyone in a
transparent manner.
So much so that we can tell you that the value of production, i.e. the total turnover of the companies in the Castellana area is more than € 10 billion per year, of which € 7.8 billion is
produced by the companies that are required to file the balance sheet and the rest is produced by the other companies. More than 3.5 billion invoiced by companies in the municipality of
Castelfranco, 800 million by those in Vedelago, 1,100 million by those in Riese Pio X and so on. Do you understand?
These are very important numbers that far exceed the budgets of the municipalities, the province and the chamber of commerce and which we make available free of charge to mayors every three
months so that they are aware of the choices they are making for their citizens. There is a free Mayor’s Up that we will give to ANCI for the municipalities connected to our databases.
This wealth of information is fundamental for planning and promoting territories, especially abroad.
In the 16 municipalities that make up the Castellana area, from Pieve del Grappa to Resana and Vedelago, more than 15,000 companies and branches operate, providing employment for over 51,000
people.this is an area that has historically had a strong manufacturing vocation: over 40% of employees work in this sector. But beyond the numbers, this means, as you well know, important
industries operating in particular in industrial machinery, the first item of provincial exports. In industrial machinery, we are the world leader like few others, together with the Germans and
Koreans.
We should also remember that behind every medium-large industrial company there are dozens and dozens of small, highly specialised craft businesses, increasingly involved in the digital
technology revolution.
But talking about manufacturing also means talking about the advanced tertiary sector. Those who set the two worlds against each other are wrong. Our entrepreneurial fabric needs local
tertiary intelligence. The season of the service sector coming from Milan is long over.
For some time now, with our observatory on Chamber of Commerce data, we have been witnessing an expansion of the tertiary sector, which today in the Castellana area accounts for another 20% of
the workforce in the area.
This expansion is supported by design activities, business consultancy, and more recently, as I mentioned, by the challenges imposed by digital transformation and the energy transition.
In this sense, the Castellana area, for the development of tertiary activities, is positively affected by its proximity to Padua as well as Treviso.
No less important in the area are the activities linked to the tourism, catering, trade and leisure sectors. Another 20% of the area’s employees work in this sector.
We know very well: unfortunately, this is a supply chain that has suffered greatly from the pandemic. But anyone who studies the evolution of tourism knows that, after Covid, the attractions
spread throughout the area have a lot of cards to play compared to the traditional attractors of mass tourism.
We, as the Chamber of Commerce, are already committed to promoting the various themes that can encourage a certain type of tourism in our area. Discovering the art and history of jewels such
as Castelfranco and Asolo, exploring food and wine or cycling itineraries, networking the Venetian Villas circuit.
We are coming out of a very hard period, as we all know. The pandemic has marked us as people, as I said. And on the economic front, too, the damage has been enormous.
Just one figure is enough: the province of Treviso, one of the top ten Italian provinces in terms of exports, experienced a drop in foreign sales of -7.3%, corresponding to 1 billion less in
sales.
Today, however, the economy is recovering strongly. All the short-term indicators show that our communities are able to start up again. And work is also starting up again: which means income
for your children and a future for your grandchildren.
According to the data collected by Veneto Lavoro, between July 2020 and June 2021 the employment balance is at +1,000 in the Castellana area.
Keep in mind that last year the employment balance was zero, supported by the extensive use of social shock absorbers and the ban on dismissals, but still entered negative territory for
services.
Today, however, it is important to highlight that this balance of +1000 employees is even higher than that recorded two years ago: and it is supported by both manufacturing and
services. Admittedly, the recovery is overheated for some sectors (e.g. the problem of procurement), while for other sectors it is slower.
The fashion system is still suffering from lower sales due to social distancing and remote working, which has drastically reduced the need to renew wardrobes.
The food industry, at least until May, missed out on the entire market share of hotels and restaurants.
Tourism still lacked foreigners, but the good news is that in July, Italian tourist arrivals here in the Castellana exceeded the July 2019 figure (pre-Covid) by +6.8%. The road is uphill,
but we have picked up speed.
We are aware of the many uncertainties that loom over the road: progress of the vaccination campaign, variants, rising raw material prices. But we are proving to be strong. The many
companies that have focused on innovation and digital technology (partly due to Covid) have quickly regained market positions.
Of course, going back to work, these challenges also require a major investment in people. On the knowledge that people bring.
Seen in this light, a holiday such as today’s Loyalty to Work Day is by no means a ritual. Not only is it a festival that exalts the culture of work. Above all, it shows young people
the way to build a distinctive knowledge.
That knowledge, which in the faces of all of you award-winners has become a deep light in your eyes, a rich story to tell, in young people must become passion, curiosity, a desire to
learn without ever being satisfied.
And if they manage to contaminate the new knowledge, of which young people are certainly the bearers, with the knowledge of the “old man”, who only has to look at a piece to understand
whether it is well made or not, then the game will be won. And we will still have audiences like this one we are awarding today.
I would like to conclude by saying a few words of greeting to some of the authorities and then move on to the Festival. I’ll stop here because we’ll thank them at the end.
Some thanks
The Municipality of Castelfranco for making the Academic Theatre available, the service companies that worked to make this day possible, my collaborators at the Chamber of Commerce, the
director of the Steffani Conservatory who will accompany us on all these 4 stages of our tour.
The trade associations present in the Chamber Council from:
Confindustria
Confartigianato
CNA
Confcommercio
Coldiretti, Confagricoltura and CIA for the agricultural world
The world of cooperation
The trade union confederations
