Bianchi: “Helping SMEs grow to boost GDP, productivity and wages”

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At the Small Industry Forum, the president proposed a four-stage pact to promote business development: “This would increase GDP by 4.3 per cent”. He called on ...

ROME – Promoting the growth of small businesses to boost productivity, GDP and wages. This is the proposal put forward by Fausto Bianchi, president of Piccola Industria and vice-president of Confindustria (employers' association), at the organisation’s 22nd annual forum.

According to the study presented, if companies with 10–19 employees were to reach the 50–249 employee bracket, productivity would rise by 5.5 per cent in industry, 6.1 per cent in manufacturing and 4.3 per cent across the economy as a whole, assuming employment levels remained the same. “Such growth would translate into a corresponding increase in GDP and a broadly similar rise in wages,” Bianchi stressed.

At the heart of the proposal are the approximately 220,000 businesses with 10–100 employees, referred to as ‘10/100’: companies too large to benefit from schemes intended for micro-enterprises, but not yet sufficiently established to easily access public and market resources. “Small businesses must be able to grow into medium-sized ones,” Bianchi said. “It is not a question of the quality of Italian entrepreneurs, but of barriers to growth.” The picture, however, is worrying. Between 2018 and 2024, the number of micro and small industrial enterprises fell by 7.1 per cent.

Hence the call for a four-year 10/100 Pact, not limited to the next budget law. Businesses are making four commitments: to grow, to strengthen their financial stability, to open up to new partners and expertise, and to promote industrial mergers. “Merging does not mean giving up one’s identity. It means giving it a future,” Bianchi explained. Politicians, on the other hand, are asked to fulfil four conditions: simple rules, investment, capital and finance. The proposals include a dedicated instrument for innovation within 10/100 companies, permanent incentives to strengthen capital bases, and broader access to credit, private equity and capital markets.

Bianchi also highlighted the differences in treatment between industry…

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