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Italian payment practices
意大利的支付習(xí)慣
Unhealthy delays
有害的延誤
Late payments are an Italian speciality—particularly in health care
延遲支付是意大利的特色——尤其在醫(yī)藥保健領(lǐng)域
IN MEDICINE speed is of the essence.
在醫(yī)藥領(lǐng)域，速度就是核心。
If the ambulance arrives a minute late, the patient may be dead.
如果救護(hù)車晚到一分鐘，病人就可能死亡了。
Italian paramedics are no doubt as swift as those in other countries.
意大利的護(hù)理人員無(wú)疑同其他國(guó)家一樣行動(dòng)迅速。
But Italy's health-care authorities are shamefully slow when it comes to paying suppliers—making it difficult for them to survive.
但談到向供應(yīng)商支付時(shí)，意大利的醫(yī)療機(jī)構(gòu)就慢的令人羞恥了—簡(jiǎn)直讓供應(yīng)商們難以生存。
We're still waiting to be paid for goods sold in 2009, says Stefano Rimondi, the managing director of Bellco, a maker of equipment for dialysis with revenues of more than 100m and a workforce of 360 people.
我們還在等2009年出售的貨物的付款，Bellco公司的常務(wù)董事Stefano Rimondi說道。Bellco是一家滲透設(shè)備制造商，擁有360名員工，每年收入超過1億歐元。
We have one employee working full-time chasing up late payers, he adds.
他補(bǔ)充道，我們有一個(gè)員工全職專司向延遲付款人追討款項(xiàng)。
Bellco is not the only company to suffer.
Bellco不是唯一一家深受其害的公司。
The 250 other members of Assobiomedica, a trade group for firms that supply medical equipment, are owed 5.6 billion;
提供醫(yī)療設(shè)備的貿(mào)易組織，意大利生物醫(yī)藥聯(lián)合會(huì)下屬的250家公司有未付款56億歐元；
those of Farmindustria, which represents 200 pharmaceutical firms, are waiting for 4 billion.
意大利制藥工業(yè)協(xié)會(huì)下屬的200家制藥公司則有未付款40億歐元。
The farther south you look, the longer the delays in payment.
你往南看的越遠(yuǎn)，支付的延遲時(shí)間就越長(zhǎng)。
The Friuli and Trentino-Alto Adige regions in north-eastern Italy and Valle d'Aosta in the north-west settle bills after about three months.
在意大利東北部的Friuli 和Trentino-Alto Adige區(qū)域，以及在西北部的Valle d'Aosta都在三個(gè)月后支付賬單。
The regions of Calabria and Molise pay on average after two years.
Calabria 和 Molise區(qū)的人平均兩年后才付賬。
The record is held by one Neapolitan health authority:
那不勒斯省中某市的衛(wèi)生部門保持著相關(guān)記錄：
some of its suppliers have been waiting for more than four-and-a-half years.
他的一些供應(yīng)商已經(jīng)等了至少四年半了。
Small Italian firms that rely on the home market are hit particularly hard.
一些依賴家庭市場(chǎng)的意大利企業(yè)尤其損失嚴(yán)重。
Often they cannot get bank financing at reasonable interest rates.
他們通常不能以合理的利率從銀行貸款。
And long delays in payment create all kinds of tax and accounting headaches.
而長(zhǎng)時(shí)間延誤付款將導(dǎo)致稅收和會(huì)計(jì)方面的一系列問題。
Suing late-payers doesn't help much.
起訴延遲付款者也沒有太大作用。
Courts are at least as slow as health-care authorities.
法院的速度至少和醫(yī)療機(jī)構(gòu)一樣慢。
In five regions a law even blocks the use of courts to compel authorities to cough up.
甚至有一項(xiàng)法律在五個(gè)地區(qū)中禁止法院強(qiáng)制官員吐出資金。
Once we were able to recover about 5m of interest a year, but now we've had to give up, says the executive of a large American drugmaker, which had started to take legal action in 2007.
一家大型美國(guó)制藥公司在2007年采取法律行動(dòng)以后說道：曾經(jīng)我們可以收到一年大約500萬(wàn)歐元的利息，但現(xiàn)在我們放棄了。
Pharmaceutical firms cannot simply stay clear of the worst offenders:
制藥公司不能簡(jiǎn)單的遠(yuǎn)離最極端的冒犯者們：
they are legally required to supply drugs even to notoriously slow authorities.
法律甚至要求這些為慢的臭名昭著的官員提供藥品。
Desperate measures are also unlikely to help.
令人絕望的法規(guī)同樣很難起到作用。
Starting a boycott of late-paying authorities could trigger an antitrust investigation.
啟動(dòng)對(duì)延遲付款官員的聯(lián)合抵制將觸發(fā)反壟斷調(diào)查。
And paying sweeteners to move invoices to the top of the list can land you behind bars.
而通過賄賂使賬單排到列表最頂端的舉動(dòng)將使你鋃鐺入獄。
Some suppliers are pinning their hopes on new European Union legislation which requires health-care authorities to settle bills within 60 days;
一些供應(yīng)商寄希望于要求醫(yī)療機(jī)構(gòu)在60天內(nèi)付款的歐盟監(jiān)管新條例；
it takes effect in March next year.
此條例將于明年三月份生效。
Yet Mr Rimondi would be shocked if things improved:
但如果情況真的有所改進(jìn)的話，Rimondi先生會(huì)感到震驚，
Some clause will be dreamed up so that the directive can be dodged in Italy.
將有一些條款被設(shè)計(jì)出來，讓意大利逃過監(jiān)管。
