Billions of losses .. Corona paralyzes the productive sectors in Italy

Muhammad Hamdan - Rome

After Italy became the third country in the world in terms of the number of infections with Corona virus, many foreign countries announced their refusal to receive Italians at their airports, and advised their citizens not to travel to them, as well as canceling flights back and forth to it, which became costing Malpensa Airport only in Milan a loss It is estimated at one hundred thousand passengers daily.

This is in addition to the strict precautionary measures taken by the government of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and decided to close schools, universities and sports fields and freeze all cultural and recreational activities for the most famous Venetian carnival in Europe, and school trips that alone pay - according to federal estimates - more than 360 million euros annually.

The losses that were expected by the observers at the beginning of last February were only the tip of an iceberg, especially since the impact of the spread of Corona is now beginning to appear clearly on many of the country's productive sectors, especially the tourism sector, which constitutes approximately 12% From the value of the Italian GDP annually.

The volume of sales of this sector in the past year of 2019 exceeded 146 billion euros, especially since this huge productive sector in the country includes residence structures and tourism facilities numbering about 216 thousand, while the number of travel and tourism agencies is about 12 thousand.

The tourism sector is losing billions
With these numbers, workers in the tourism sector are now trembling, especially as they fear serious repercussions on the tourism sector in the snow-capped white mountains and during the Easter period beginning of next April, when the ancient historical Italian cities are crowded with crowds of tourists who come to visit them from all over The globe.

In this context, the President of the Italian Federation of Hotels Paola Schneider commented: "We are currently on the edge of the abyss, after canceling about 80% of the reservations in cities and 95% in the mountains."

She added that the tourism sector in the mountainous areas visited by tourists to ski and spend holidays in a healthy and calm atmosphere, has completely collapsed, which prompted many businessmen to close their hotels due to the lack of local and foreign visitors, especially from eastern European countries that decided to subject their citizens returning from Italy to quarantine For 14 days.

Experts expect that the value of the loss of the tourism sector in Italy will reach about ten billion euros between the beginning of March this year to May 31, due to the outbreak of the Corona virus emerging in the country.

The Italian Federation of Tourism Commercial Sector stated that the country will lose more than 31.6 million tourists in this period, in light of the recent developments of the frequency of the virus outbreak.

"The situation of this sector has become disastrous by any measure," Federal President Luca Pattani said, warning that media scare and spreading false news on social media about the spread of the virus has become more lethal than the virus itself.

Export and trade sector
It is likely - as experts expect - that a very severe blow will hit the export sector in Italy, after recording many infections with the virus in some regions whose companies and factories top the national export list.

According to some estimates, sales outside the national borders from the areas affected by the Coruna outbreak in northern Italy - such as Lodi, Cremona, Pavia, Bergamo, Milan, Monza, Padua, Venice, Treviso, Piacenza, Parma, Modena and Rimini - are valued at 138 One billion euros out of 465 billion is the total value of the volume of Italian exports annually.

During the last fashion week in the city of Milan - where the most famous Italian fashion, jewelry and luxury perfumes are located in the world - many fashion shows that thousands of journalists and photographers from all over the world usually follow, in an unusual format, behind the doors of the closed doors and the stands free of spectators Because of corona.

It is worth noting that the total value of profits resulting from sales of the Italian fashion sector in 2019 recorded revenues exceeding ninety billion euros.

The Chamber of Commerce for Fashion had expected at the beginning of last February - when the virus was in the incubation stage - a loss of 1.8% of the volume of these sales, but after a month has passed since that date it is likely that the losses that this sector will incur much more painful.

Tangible negative repercussions
Stefano Faseno, a former Italian Deputy Minister of Economy, said that the effects of the Corona virus outbreak on the Italian economy have already become negative and will get worse in the medium term, and the collapse of the global and domestic tourism sector is inevitably a major factor in the upcoming economic recession.

Fassino, who is considered one of the most important economists in Italy, added: "It is also necessary to draw attention to the fact that the blockade and paralysis that hit the global production and supply chains, starting from China, will have negative tangible repercussions on the auto and textile sectors in Italy."

A member of the ruling Italian "Liberal and Equal Party" pointed out that he feared that the estimates of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and other independent institutions published these days would be too optimistic.

Serious consequences
Vaseno assured Al Jazeera Net that there is an urgent need now to develop a dual strategy, explaining the need to contain the virus and limit its spread. He pointed out that the greater the spread of the virus, the deeper and longer its severe consequences.

He also called for urgent measures to provide social safety nets for the benefit of citizens, the government to suspend payments of taxes, dues and mortgages, as well as the need to develop an economic plan for a few years, aimed primarily at supporting investments in the public sector, the restoration and maintenance of infrastructure installations, and the redevelopment of suburbs in a major Cities, last but not least: providing and developing health sector services.

"It is very important that similar measures be adopted in the same way and equally important in all member states of the European Union, as we have to take advantage of the spread of this epidemic by looking at it as a catalyst to accelerate the process that has been going on for quite a while, to be paid to The end of trade extremism practiced by the European Union and China in the last quarter of the last century. "