Vicente Lafuente is one of the most recognized faces in the business world of the province of Valencia. president of Femeval, the Metal Federation which is also the largest sectoral employers’ association in terms of representativeness by bringing together more than 3,200 companies through its associations in very different fields.
What is the impact of DANA?
The current situation is absolutely dramatic. The disaster affected an entire region, also very active industrially, with numerous services and a large population. We can say that the impact is currently practically 100% in businesses in the region. And the effects will spread because there are companies which, even if they are not present there, have the majority of their customers in this region.
And can Valencian companies that are not present in this area today work?
In Valencian small businesses today we have problems because we have people who live in the most affected areas. We need to support them and understand that they need to be where they need to be. There are a lot of things that are going to be paralyzed and slowed down and we are aware of that.
What are they asking of the Administration to regain a certain normality?
The first thing is to recover the victims and find the missing people. The second thing will be to do everything possible and to structure ourselves to take advantage of our assets and to add, not to go their separate ways like headless chickens. For the recovery, the more we all act in a structured and coordinated way, the faster it will be. And we all know that political anger does not help society.
What do you think are the most urgent measures?
You cannot take away their jobs and salaries from people who have lost everything. We need a guarantee from the Government that these salaries can be maintained temporarily, that it will be easy for companies to benefit from ERTE, without the administrative complexity that existed until now. We need sufficient funds to recover business facilities. It also requires a lot of investment in infrastructure.
Can you estimate how long it will take to return to normal and achieve recovery?
Talking about deadlines is free. With money and coordination everything can be done faster, but now we have to work 1000 percent to get people back. And then if in one year we have recovered a little activity, and in three or four years we have managed to return to the current level, we will have done something good.
This requires a long-term horizon to be able to emerge from this crisis.
Right now, the situation we know we are going to experience in daily business life is one of complete uncertainty. We don’t know if customers will be able to pay us or not, or if we will get any work or not. Those of us with experience already know where the problems will come from.
How are Femeval and the sector working together to address this humanitarian crisis?
Enterprises and Femeval, we have two fundamental lines. The first, which remains the priority, consists of searching for missing people and working to clean up the damage in an attempt to resume activity. All associations of electricity, gas and water installers are working hard in the mud at street level, directly with municipalities and with operators to get where they cannot. The second happens because we already have to start thinking about tomorrow. We are discussing with the Administration to see how to generate mobility for workers and also so that people in this region who have lost their vehicle, there are thousands of them, can access the purchase of a vehicle.
