«It is difficult to do business in Taranto and Casartigiani Taranto, unfortunately, already announced this problem months ago».
This is what the regional coordinator of Casartigiani Puglia, Stefano Castronuovo, declares regarding the data commented by the President of the Brindisi – Taranto Chamber of Commerce, Vincenzo Cesareo.
The latter concern the quarterly statistical analysis of company birth mortality, conducted by InfoCamere and on behalf of Unioncamere, on the archives of all the Italian Chambers of Commerce. The situation in the artisan sector is alarming: in the first quarter of 2024, in the province of Taranto, 158 businesses registered in the Business Register, compared to the 207 that closed their doors. The balance, or the difference between the two data above, is 49.
Castronuovo continues: «Existing businesses are struggling to get back on track, floundering between one regional support and another. The number of start-ups, however, has decreased mainly because young entrepreneurs are unable to deal with the countless bureaucratic loopholes. Dynamics that do not favor the future, whose prospects appear unclear and uncertain.”
Months ago, Casartigiani Taranto proposed the creation of a permanent table to deal closely with the Taranto dispute. Long-standing problems such as the lack of adequate infrastructure (i.e. Regional 8, State Road 100 or the SS Bradanico – Salentina) and the lack of an alternative to the steel monoculture inevitably affect the survival of companies.
Which is why the city of Taranto cannot be treated as an isolated problem, rather as a strategic hub in the production structure of the entire country: «We hope – said Castronuovo – that this coordination will be established as soon as possible, because we can no longer wait. A place of discussion where institutions, trade unions and trade associations can compete and where the progress of projects and construction sites is monitored, avoiding their suspension.
Table that the Puglia Region should activate and instead, according to Casartigiani, Taranto is proving to be completely absent: «Taranto also needs specific incentives and support: we are strongly worried because time is pressing and inertia could lead to the second quarter which could turn out to be worse than the previous one», concluded Castronuovo.
