> Large parts of the Italian economy, from trucking to electricity, are > clogged by red tape and cartels, which hold down competition. That pushes > up costs for Italian businesses, hurting their ability to compete with > rivals from Germany or France.
What really killed the Italian economy is the new competition from Poland and Slovakia. Now the proverbial potatoes get trucked there (instead of Italy) to be washed and processed to fries. Finally fewer trucks thru the Alps, yippee! > Italians had worked hard just to get into the euro club Yeah, if cooking the books counts as "work"... (think Parmalat ;) > The only highway is usually clogged, meaning the journey often takes six > hours. To be sure of catching flights, Lotto's delivery trucks leave during > the night -- or arrive a day in advance. "This basically doubles our cost > of moving goods," says Mr. Tomat. > > Another drag, he says, is Italy's bureaucracy. Lotto is trying to bring two > employees from China, where it produces 60% of its goods, to work in Italy, > but getting the paperwork approved will take six months. "In a world where > in six months you can develop whole new stores over there, we are traveling > by bicycle when everyone else has a car," he says. Well, on clogged roads, bicycles are faster than cars... Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
