Not so much, but the Development Decree also talks a little about exports and internationalisation. There are no shocking news, rather some regulatory simplifications and - we hope - a greater rationality of the interventions.
Let's see briefly what are the provisions that most closely concern this matter.
Fund for sustainable growth also for promotion abroad
One of the cornerstones of the legislative decree passed on Friday by the Council of Ministers is the “Fund for sustainable growth”, which comes from reorganization of the special revolving fund on technological innovation (formerly FIT). The Fund's primary objective is the financing of programs and interventions for the competitiveness and support of the production system on the basis of projects of significant national interest, articulated along three strategic lines: 1) the promotion of research, development and innovation projects ; 2) the revitalization of areas in crisis situations through the signing of program agreements; 3) the promotion of the international presence of companies and the attraction of foreign investments. A dedicated section is set up within the Fund for each objective.
To raise the funds needed for the Fund, it is expected the repeal of 43 rules on business facilitation, managed by the MiSE (among which the law n. 488/1992 and those relating to the negotiated programming or the Program Contracts, the Localization Contracts and the Area Contracts). Thus they will recover approximately 650 million euros in 2012, plus another 200 million in subsequent years, to which must be added the resources of the "Revolving fund for business support and investment in research (FRI)" set up at Cassa Depositi e Prestiti Spa estimated at around 1,2 billion euro.
The money can be used for subsidized loans that provide for repayments and, limited to interventions financed by the EU and the Regions, also ad other forms of reliefexcept for the tax credit. Non-repayable interventions are abolished.
The methods of using the Fund for the promotion of the international presence of companies and the attraction of investments from abroad must be defined in the coming months, but it is nonetheless a important tool and to be followed carefully.
Rules suppressed
Between 43 rules suppressed from the development decree, 4 directly concern measures and contributions for internationalization operations. These are:
- Contributions to Organizations, Institutes and Associations for the realization of specific promotional initiatives, supplementary to the public promotional activity (Law 1083/54);
- Contributions to export consortia between small and medium enterprises (Law 83/89);
- Contributions to agro-food and tourist-hotel consortia (Law 394/81 – art. 10);
- Contributions aimed at encouraging the performance of specific promotional activities of national importance and the implementation of projects aimed at favoring, in particular, the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (art. 22.1 of Legislative Decree 143/98).
These regulations concerned, for various reasons, contributions for export consortia or other promotional activities. The intention is clear to concentrate the first contributions on the new internationalization consortia, the second activities in the general framework of initiatives planned by the new ICE: therefore their abrogation is more than logical and welcome.
News for ICE and Enit
Further organizational measures are introduced for the start-up and expansion of the activity of theICE. In particular it is fixed at 450 (instead of 300, as before) the staffing endowment of the Agency with the consequent entry into the Mise roles of the remaining employees.
The presence of the Minister with responsibility for tourism, the Minister of agricultural policies, the President of the Conference of Regions and the cooperative system is foreseen in the control room.
The reorganization of the Enit network abroad is also started. The progressive absorption of the 25 foreign offices of Enit into those of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs it will result in an almost complete saving of operating costs, which can be estimated at more 12,7 million euros.
As already envisaged for the new ICE Agency, a significant reorganization of the employment of Enit personnel is envisaged in the face of a mission and activities that mostly look at the international context.
On this front, there could have been a little more courage in making cuts, given that Enit is now an empty institution, as its powers have been transferred to the regions. It could have been abolished by passing the residual competences to ICE or to the regions and by selling or putting the Italian and foreign offices to good use. But at least a first step has been taken.
Internationalization support
The law (art. 42) reorganizes and simplifies the procedures relating to the Fund for internationalization established by Law 394/81 and managed by SIMEST, also establishing a reserve equal to 70% of the resources for SMEs. In particular, it establishes that the terms, conditions and conditions of the
interventions, the activities and obligations of the manager, the control functions as well as the composition and duties of the Committee for the administration of this Fund are determined by a non-regulatory decree of the Minister of Economic Development.
Consortia for internationalization are born
They are set up internationalization consortia, Whose mission will be addressed to new forms of internationalization, training, promotion of Made in Italy:. In fact, they have as their object the international diffusion of the products and services of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as support for their presence in foreign markets, also through collaboration and partnerships with foreign companies.
The sectors to which the consortium companies belong are also extended to those of services and commerce and agri-food.
The composition of the new consortia is also open to the possible participation of public and private entities, banks and large companies. They are confirmed labor taxes of the Ministry of Economic Development to support internationalization projects. These contributions will go to coverage of no more than 50 percent of the costs incurred by consortia for the execution of internationalization projects, to be implemented also through network contracts with non-consortium small and medium-sized enterprises. The projects can have a multi-year duration, with the allocation of expenses for single years. The subjective requisites, criteria and methods for granting contributions will be established with a non-regulatory decree of the Minister of Economic Development, to be issued within ninety days from the date of entry into force of the law converting the development decree.
In order to avoid the dispersion of resources in small interventions, the contributions to support the internationalization projects of various bodies, organizations or associations are now concentrated only on the projects carried out by the new internationalization consortia, by the Chambers of Commerce abroad and by trade associations.
Protection of Made in Italy: the sanctions entrusted to the Chambers of Commerce
It relies on the Chamber of Commerce system sanctioning power in the event of violation of the provisions envisaged on the subject of Made in Italy: which requires the owners or licensees of trademarks to accompany the products or goods either with precise and evident indications on the origin or foreign provenance, or in any case sufficient to avoid any misunderstanding by the consumer on the actual origin of the product.
The aim is to strengthen the action against illegal conduct involving the use of the brand in such a way as to induce the consumer to believe that the product or goods are of Italian origin, in line with the European legislation on origin.
One final comment
As I said before, there are no extremely relevant news in the development of the export and internationalization activities of our companies. Above all, the two fundamental points for the growth of the presence of our companies on foreign markets are missing: the strengthening between interventions (insurance and financial) to support exports and credit from the banking system; the expansion of the instrumentation for the support of foreign investments of our companies.
From the point of view of the promotion of Made in Italy, on the other hand, good progress has been made, with the possibility of using the Fund for sustainable growth also for this purpose, the strengthening of the ICE, the birth of Consortia for internationalization and the central role of the chambers of commerce in deciding the sanctions for the protection of Made in Italy. It's not much, but it's still something, hoping the improvements don't end there.
