Italian payment practices

　　意大利的支付习惯

　　Unhealthy delays

　　有害的延误

　　Late payments are an Italian speciality—particularly in health care

　　延迟支付是意大利的特色——尤其在医药保健领域

　　IN MEDICINE speed is of the essence.

　　在医药领域，速度就是核心。

　　If the ambulance arrives a minute late, the patient may be dead.

　　如果救护车晚到一分钟，病人就可能死亡了。

　　Italian paramedics are no doubt as swift as those in other countries.

　　意大利的护理人员无疑同其他国家一样行动迅速。

　　But Italy's health-care authorities are shamefully slow when it comes to paying suppliers—making it difficult for them to survive.

　　但谈到向供应商支付时，意大利的医疗机构就慢的令人羞耻了—简直让供应商们难以生存。

　　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.

　　我们还在等2009年出售的货物的付款，Bellco公司的常务董事Stefano Rimondi说道。Bellco是一家渗透设备制造商，拥有360名员工，每年收入超过1亿欧元。

　　We have one employee working full-time chasing up late payers, he adds.

　　他补充道，我们有一个员工全职专司向延迟付款人追讨款项。

　　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;

　　提供医疗设备的贸易组织，意大利生物医药联合会下属的250家公司有未付款56亿欧元；

　　those of Farmindustria, which represents 200 pharmaceutical firms, are waiting for 4 billion.

　　意大利制药工业协会下属的200家制药公司则有未付款40亿欧元。

　　The farther south you look, the longer the delays in payment.

　　你往南看的越远，支付的延迟时间就越长。

　　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.

　　在意大利东北部的Friuli 和Trentino-Alto Adige区域，以及在西北部的Valle d'Aosta都在三个月后支付账单。

　　The regions of Calabria and Molise pay on average after two years.

　　Calabria 和 Molise区的人平均两年后才付账。

　　The record is held by one Neapolitan health authority:

　　那不勒斯省中某市的卫生部门保持着相关记录：

　　some of its suppliers have been waiting for more than four-and-a-half years.

　　他的一些供应商已经等了至少四年半了。

　　Small Italian firms that rely on the home market are hit particularly hard.

　　一些依赖家庭市场的意大利企业尤其损失严重。

　　Often they cannot get bank financing at reasonable interest rates.

　　他们通常不能以合理的利率从银行贷款。

　　And long delays in payment create all kinds of tax and accounting headaches.

　　而长时间延误付款将导致税收和会计方面的一系列问题。

　　Suing late-payers doesn't help much.

　　起诉延迟付款者也没有太大作用。

　　Courts are at least as slow as health-care authorities.

　　法院的速度至少和医疗机构一样慢。

　　In five regions a law even blocks the use of courts to compel authorities to cough up.

　　甚至有一项法律在五个地区中禁止法院强制官员吐出资金。

　　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.

　　一家大型美国制药公司在2007年采取法律行动以后说道：曾经我们可以收到一年大约500万欧元的利息，但现在我们放弃了。

　　Pharmaceutical firms cannot simply stay clear of the worst offenders:

　　制药公司不能简单的远离最极端的冒犯者们：

　　they are legally required to supply drugs even to notoriously slow authorities.

　　法律甚至要求这些为慢的臭名昭著的官员提供药品。

　　Desperate measures are also unlikely to help.

　　令人绝望的法规同样很难起到作用。

　　Starting a boycott of late-paying authorities could trigger an antitrust investigation.

　　启动对延迟付款官员的联合抵制将触发反垄断调查。

　　And paying sweeteners to move invoices to the top of the list can land you behind bars.

　　而通过贿赂使账单排到列表最顶端的举动将使你锒铛入狱。

　　Some suppliers are pinning their hopes on new European Union legislation which requires health-care authorities to settle bills within 60 days;

　　一些供应商寄希望于要求医疗机构在60天内付款的欧盟监管新条例；

　　it takes effect in March next year.

　　此条例将于明年三月份生效。

　　Yet Mr Rimondi would be shocked if things improved:

　　但如果情况真的有所改进的话，Rimondi先生会感到震惊，

　　Some clause will be dreamed up so that the directive can be dodged in Italy.

　　将有一些条款被设计出来，让意大利逃过监管。