Italy Government To Resume Aid Talks With Fashion Leaders Thursday

Italy Government To Resume Aid Talks With Fashion Leaders Thursday ROME -(Dow Jones)- Italy's government will resume talks on Thursday with the nation's fashion leaders regarding financial aid to the sector, a spokeswoman for the ministry told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday. Industry Minister Claudio Scajola is expected to meet with representatives from the textile and shoe sectors around 1600 GMT in Rome. Scajola was expected to unveil a plan, aimed at preserving some 700,000 jobs, by mid-March, but recent changes to Italian government budget laws now require cabinet approval. A spokesman for Sistema Moda Italiana, a textile and fashion association, said: "We are worried. The situation gets worse, day by day." Italy's fashion industry leaders, who say the sector had sales worth EUR52.5 billion in 2008, have urged the government to safeguard jobs for some 700,000 small-company workers. The fashion industry comprises about 60,000 companies, of which about 90% are classified as small businesses, SMI said previously. In Italy, small companies aren't eligible for subsidized government unemployment funds. Earlier Wednesday, the government said financial resources to help ailing small and medium-sized Italian companies had been raised to EUR1.5 billion from EUR1.3 billion.