Reopening everything at full speed is a must for Renzo Rosso, entrepreneur, president of OTB and founder of Diesel, despite Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s recently announced “Phase 2” restart after COVID-19.
"Conte is a huge phenomenon,” said Renzo Rosso, during the Italian TV talk show, Quarta Repubblica, while debating with Stefano Patuanelli, Minister of Development. “Conte is able to say everyone is admiring him for what he does, though other countries do exactly the opposite. He is surely a phenomenon to be studied. In a few months we will talk about it again as the longer we keep this country closed the more unemployed people we will count.”
“We are not genius but look at what others did and passed through all this before us. We have to reopen. It is necessary to reopen if not our economy and our country will crash down. I come from a fantastic sector. We are the first sector for export in Italy. We have an incredible GDP and hire two million employees. We never received one single help from the government, as Fiat or mechanical companies did. We got ‘zero’ but we are the sector that brings tourism to Italy, make people look great, and have brought the greatest insignias in most beautiful shopping streets all over the world. We give luster to our country,” he continued.
“I own companies all over the world. I have 700 hundreds employees in China. There everything remained closed for one week only for Chinese New Year and then reopened, apart from one city, Wuhan. For the rest, all offices and shops have always remained open. They are only more rigid in checking people’s health.”
“This government has been speaking only but no money has arrived. We are one of the Italian leading groups and in terms of financing we speak with most important banks of Italy, but none of them knows anything about how companies will be financed.”
And he continued speaking to the minister: “You don’t know how to manage economy. I’m a serious entrepreneur. I pay my workers every month and I am responsible for 7,000 families I am very worried about.”
“We have an incredible value chain and it’s a great opportunity for you. We have many small enterprises run by many small family craftsmen–15 to 20 people... consider that the majority of French luxury brands produce here. All these small handicraftsmen are unique all over the world. If we don’t finance them immediately they will close and everything will go lost forever. Bye bye Made in Italy! If you finance these small manufacturers and lower or cancel their taxation for five-six years they can survive and we can bring back to Italy who has moved production outside of the country. This way we can support them financially and can build something that no one else has in the world. At that point we can boast an incredible industry that brings richness and creates new jobs for the young.”
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