Funding for business development

Support for investments in innovative plants and services, environmental quality and safety at work; creation of a virtuous circle between the Region, banks and guarantee consortia so as to provide credit opportunities and new capitalisation instruments for small and medium enterprises; qualification and development of loan consortia; opportunities for newly formed SMEs operating in high-tech sectors during the start-up phase or deriving from spin-off processes, facilities for networks and grouping of businesses.

These are the main aims of the Operative Program of the European Regional Development Fund for the period 2007-2013 and of Strand 1 of the Business Development Plan, through which the Region gives more financial power to companies, and quicker, easier access to credit.

Emilia-Romagna gives credit to businesses
Companies in Emilia-Romagna can count on good relations with credit institutes, set up to deal efficiently with one of the most solid business systems in Italy and Europe. There is a widespread presence across the territory, while major credit institutes and insurance companies of the region also operate on national and international levels.
To boost openings of banks to business, the Region also makes a contribution, which with specific measures also helps and small and medium businesses, in other words the companies that have more difficulty with access to credit. In particular it is the 3-year Plan for productive activities that supports the granting of special loans by credit institutes to companies for investments, aimed at the purchase of machine tools or production equipment, technological, commercial or organisational innovation, environmental protection and safety at the workplace.
Within this context, the activities of the Confidi (mutual guarantee societies) also play a major role. These are non-profit organisations spread across the territory and requested by the specialist associations, with the task of facilitating access to bank credit by associate companies, usually SME, providing guarantees that increase their contractual power with the said credit institutes.

Those investing in Emilia-Romagna can count on solid relations with banking institutes: the value of investments by regional companies is the third highest in Italy. In September 2008, these amounted to over 106 billion euro: 10.3% of the Italian total. Bank deposits are also thriving: businesses unrelated to the financial sector represent 31% of the national total of (bank) deposits in the industrial sector.