The mid-year survey on business sentiment, commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce and carried out by the Istituto Tagliacarne (set up by the Italian Chambers of Commerce), underlines increased confidence in spite of conflicting signals from the economy. As a matter of fact, half the businesses in Treviso believe that the first signs of recovery will be visible from 2010 and the 12% of them thinks there will be a turning point later this year. The remaining 26% suggests that recovery will probably start from 2011.

The crisis impact
According to companies, production decreased by 12.3% on average, turnover by 19.7%, while employment diminished by 3.7%. A positive remark is concerned with investments, growing by 5.2% Federico Tessari, president of Treviso Chamber of Commerce, comments that despite data not being positive, the growth in investments highlights that entrepeneurs are willing to restructure and reposition for more competitiveness on the markets: that is an index of determination and ability to react of the local entrepeneurial system, facing the decrease in production and turnover. Backlog orders and liquidity suffered the most from the crisis (36%), followed by difficulty in collecting payments from customers and a reduction in orders to suppliers. Moreover, the 31.5% of entrepreneurs noted they encounter more difficulties in accessing the credit. As for Treviso entrepreneurs' attitude towards worsening conditions, it can be observed that the first place is taken by late payments to suppliers (30%).

New strategies and measures
The statements collected show that the strategies adopted to deal with the crisis are primarily related to cost efficiency of supply and production, secondly to the broadening of product range and quality improvements of products and services.

What do companies need?
Federico Tessari concludes by saying that what the 63% of companies from Treviso require, within this context, is a reduction of their tax burden. The 24% of them expect some policies promoting investment, in line with their desire to look ahead. In this sense, the 13% of businesses calls for administrative simplification, necessary to make the environment suitable for economic development.