Background

Entrepreneurship in Italy

The European Union in general has experienced indications of an economic slowdown since the second quarter of 2008, with Italy performing the worst of the entire eurozone (countries whose currency is the euro). Although industrial production grew at a moderate rate for the first four months of 2008, it’s currently in a phase of contraction according to the most recent Italian government statistics available. The poor state of the Italian economy led to a change in government in the spring of 2008.

Italy has around three million small businesses, those that employ fewer than fifty people, and the country has traditionally had many small businesses. At the same time, it’s loaded with red tape, with even more of it for foreigners from outside the EU. The Doing Business Project ranks Italy a dismal 65th out of 178 countries for ease of starting a business, and even lower for ease of dealing with licenses.

Government support for small business is limited. The best business help you’re likely to obtain from the public sector, however, is from local chambers of commerce, (Camera di Commercio). This and the Italian Trade Commission, a governmental agency that promotes trade, business opportunities and industrial co-operation between Italian and foreign companies, have English websites.