«Clarity is needed regarding the industrial areas of Calabria, their necessary modernization and management». This is what Aldo Ferrara, president of Unindustria Calabria, reiterates once again in light of the now well-known critical issues that the Calabrian Confindustria system has not failed to underline for years and the vibrant protests coming from companies located in the regional industrial areas.
«Unindustria continues to strongly support the need to intervene so that the Calabrian industrial areas are capable of attracting investments and capital from outside the region, but are also able to support the Calabrian companies that with confidence and courage have chosen to invest for the social and economic development of Calabria».
The Corap node and payment requests to companies
For Unindustria, there is the risk that CORAP – a regional body that has been in liquidation for some time – will jeopardize the survival of Calabrian companies located in industrial areas. The reason is linked to the request sent by the Authority to the companies requesting the payment of huge sums linked to the cost of services in the industrial areas.
«There is a problem to which a solution must be found – explains Ferrara -. According to what the established companies report, not only have these sums never been requested from them before; indeed, over the years, the necessary invoices relating to these services would not even have been issued. Furthermore, the services for which CORAP requests payments were not provided, according to the companies. Furthermore, we cannot fail to underline that these requests arrive just as the established companies are demonstrating, with numbers in hand, that they have significant operating and growth margins”.
Towards new management: the transition from Corap to Arsai
A further operational complication is therefore emerging: «While the new regional agency, Arsai, intends to proceed in the direction of the redevelopment of the areas and services, giving life to the desired new season in the management of industrial areas, the old CORAP risks compromising the survival of the companies already operating in the areas, thus eliminating the very benefits to the companies which are the heart of the added value of the industrial areas».
The need for urgent redevelopment
«At this point – concludes Ferrara – it is imperative that clarity is made on the administrative events that impact the production capacity of companies so that the field is cleared of limitations and critical issues that risk compromising the development of the industrial areas tool even before they can be the subject of the necessary and urgent redevelopment».