The sector of visual comunication is being particularly affected by the crisis of the Covid-19, with a high percentage of companies in a situation of partial unemployment. Faced with this situation, the industry's value chain has come together to address the situation, seek common solutions and establish itself as a single interlocutor to request support from the Central Administration.
Thus, FESPA Spain, the Business Association of Visual Communication; Graphispack Association, the Association of suppliers of the printing, packaging and retail sectors; and eight other associations have sent a letter to the Minister of Economy, Nadia Calviño, and the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, in which they explain the essential role that companies in the visual communication sector play in the process of reactivating the economy and in which they are made available to channel any action that may have the participation of these ten associations.
It is an industry composed mainly of SMEs and micro-SMEs, which is of great importance at the moment, in which signage is necessary to mark the movement and separation between people, the new arrangement of linear in shops and large surfaces, different elements of protection in restaurants and hotels, banking and small and large commerce and industry in general, as well as the adaptation and signaling of the capacity of events, fairs and sporting events.
All the measures claimed by the value chain are the following:
- That the public contracts already awarded are executed as soon as possible, within this year, given that in many cases there are personnel hired for their development. If it cannot be executed, the value chain demands that the successful bidders be compensated without the need to claim through complicated administrative procedures.
- Encourage the purchase of advertising space in the media as a whole with a tax relief of 30 percent for 2020 investments. This measure has already been approved by the Government of Italy.
- Maintain the commitment to invest in advertising of the entire State Administration in the media.
- That companies are allowed to benefit from exceptional economic measures regardless of their size. Specifically, that those companies whose activity is concentrated in sectors highly impacted by government measures or in prohibited activities, such as events, can avail themselves of the ERTE modality due to prolonged force majeure until the current restrictions are lifted and the activity at the level prior to the declaration of the alarm state. And that, in turn, the reincorporation of workers affected by ERTE can be progressive and flexible, so that workers can be incorporated as the turnover of the companies is restored.
- That, once the health crisis is overcome, the different administrations allocate budgets to carry out campaigns that collaborate to relaunch the economic activity of the most affected sectors: commerce, restaurants, culture, media, tourism, etc. And that these budgets are awarded with criteria not only economic, but also of quality and allowing SMEs to compete instead of establishing barriers to access public tenders, insurmountable for many of them, regardless of their worth.
- The essential sector declaration for visual communication as a whole, given that its contribution in products and services to other critical and essential sectors such as health or food is essential.
* AFYDAD, the Spanish Association of Manufacturers and Distributors of Sporting Goods; AIMFAP, the Association of Importers, Wholesalers, Manufacturers of Promotional Items; ASERLUZ, the Spanish Association of Businessmen of Luminous Signs and Related Industries; Asociación de Creatividad Transformadora, the Association of Spanish creative agencies and companies; FEPFI, the Professional Federation of Photography and Image; AEVEA, Associated Spanish Event Agencies; FYVAR, the Association of Manufacturers and Sellers of Promotional and Advertising Articles; and FEDE, the Federation of Advertising and Communication Companies.
