The 400 million euros made available by the Ministry of Economic Development in support of the development and consolidation of female businesses lasted a few hours , exhausted within a few clicks on the keyboard.
According to the re-elaboration of the Studies Office of Confartigianato Imprese Sardegna , based on Invitalia data, the call closed with 424 applications from Sardinia (5.23%), out of a total of 8,095 at national level. From the region, 157 businesses with less than 12 months of life applied, while 276 were those with more work experience who submitted the request.
At the national level, Sardinia ranks in 12th place . The regions that sent the largest number of projects were Lombardy and Lazio with 1176 and 978 applications respectively. Followed by Campania and Emilia Romagna with 831 and 684 requests.
"Although we have appreciated the commitment of the Ministry for Economic Development in supporting, after many years, female companies, unfortunately it is the scarcity of funds and the click day procedure that disappoint the expectations of the entrepreneurs - comments Elisa Sedda , entrepreneur and regional delegate of Confartigianato Imprese Sardegna for Equal Opportunities - and it is above all the procedure for the allocation of resources, which rewards speed and who has a more powerful connection, that creates disparities in the conditions of access to incentives by potential applicants ".
“We ask ourselves if it is really important for individual entrepreneurs, and for the development of the country, to click a minute before the others. Is this really the determining factor in choosing to reward one project instead of another? Do we still have to resort to "lotteries"? Let's not forget how the allocated resources were very small compared to the potential demand. On this we must think and work to do better ”.
The Women's Enterprise Fund is the incentive of the Ministry of Economic Development designed to support the birth, development and consolidation of companies led by women through non-repayable grants and subsidized loans. The financial endowment was made available to support female enterprises of any size, already established or newly established, with headquarters in all Italian regions, and is aimed at four types of enterprises: cooperatives or partnerships with at least 60 % of female members, joint-stock companies with shares and members of the administrative bodies for at least two thirds of women, sole proprietorships with female owners, self-employed workers with VAT number.
“The strong interest in the measures to support female entrepreneurship put in place by the Ministry of Economic Development - adds Sedda - requires both to provide for a refinancing of the Fund and to revisit the ways in which resources are to be disbursed. We believe it is appropriate to intervene in a structural way to make the incentives permanent at least for the next 5 years, even with a percentage of aid lower than the current one, and complementary with other support measures for women's businesses ”.
According to the Delegate for Equal Opportunities of Confartigianato Sardegna “the instrument of a one-off grant is not the best way to pursue. Support for businesses led by women cannot be exhausted in the space of a click day and should not be understood as an action for social inclusion, assistance and income integration. Instead, it must be a pillar of the country's economic policy to make women truly participate in Italy's competitive growth process ”.
THE NUMBERS - A panorama, those of women entrepreneurs, analyzed by the Studies Office of Confartigianato Imprese Sardegna, and represented on the island by 39,374 companies registered in the Chambers of Commerce.
According to the dossier, these operate mostly in the sectors of personal services and cleaning , fashion and catering activities : these represent 23.9% of all realities.
productive of the Island. A good 4,327 companies are managed by young women (11% of the total of female artisan businesses). Of the entire audience of female entrepreneurs, almost 5,946 are artisan businesses.
At a territorial level, in the old province of Cagliari there are 16,114 female businesses of which 2,464 are artisans (15.3% of the total women businesses), in Sassari-Gallura there are 12,652 of which 2,075 are artisans (16.4%), in Nuoro they are 7,456 of which 1,056 (14.2%) are artisans and Oristano 3,132 with 350 artisans (11.2%).
(Unioneonline / vl)