This is it, the long-awaited StartupAct 2.0, the package of regulations that ideally surpasses, updates, and strengthens the well-known 2012 decree in which the concept of innovative startup with its register and incentives was first introduced, has arrived. It drowned in the so-called DDL Concorrenza that was approved by the Council of Ministers today, and the expectations of the start-up ecosystem were largely dashed.
Italian Tech Alliance, an association that brings together both start-ups and venture capitalists, has this to say about its Director General Francesco Cerruti: ‘We learn with regret about the limited ambition shown by the government with regard to the innovation ecosystem. We have worked together with many other actors to propose not a book of dreams, but a set of proposals that we are convinced can allow Italy the quantum leap it deserves in this area. Instead, we read some articles that alternate between interventions with potentially positive spin-offs and others that are less consistent with what has been discussed at length in recent months, but above all that are characterised by an absence of political investment in this area. Discarding the old wisdom of proverbs, it can be said that the mountain has, for the time being, given birth to the mouse, and this is especially regrettable considering the effort and time that many professionals have dedicated to the proposals that were submitted to MIMIT (Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, ed.) Convinced that the margins to support innovation are still ample, we will strive to ensure that in the coming months there will be further interventions to make the regulatory ecosystem that regulates the matter as incisive as is the declared intention of the government and our expectations.
There are even more critical voices coming from the ecosystem. In particular, there are those who claim that the introduced minimum threshold of 20,000 euro of paid-up capital is a contradiction, a choice that, although made to reduce the number of companies registered in the register, over 15,000 today, and thus also reduce the cost of tax incentives in the hope of eliminating from the list all those companies that are not very innovative and have failed to grow over time, conflicts with the very nature of start-ups. Those, on the other hand, who are convinced that this passage of the new legislation will prove to be not decisive but generally lhe approach intended by the legislator lacks driving force. At a time when start-ups should be pushed to their limits so that the process of industrial, economic and social innovation can accelerate, more courage was certainly needed, not only renewed incentive regulations but also new resources.
The StartupAct of 2012 which was certainly important because it brought the start-up phenomenon to the attention of the institutions for the first time, even if questionable in certain aspects, such as that of defining by decree what the characteristics had to be to define a company as innovative, had and continues to need a profound update, This is both because 12 years in the start-up world correspond to a geological era given the speed at which innovation, the market and the international scenario are evolving, and because it would be important to give the country an acceleration boost that would act as a shot in the arm to enable it to recover, at least in part, that dimensional, structural and cultural gap that it has accumulated compared to other European economies when it comes to start-ups that innovate. The process of updating the rule began months ago and has been accompanied by the work of representatives of the startup world who are in dialogue with the institutions, but certainly for appreciable results to be achieved, the will of all parties is required, and in light of the text of the new decree, many of the proposals put forward have not found a place, except for the extension of certain incentives to certified incubators and the obligation on the part of institutional investors, such as pension funds, to allocate a portion, we are talking about 2%, to investments in start-ups, which would also have a cultural value and which already exists in other countries.
What is proposed on the subject of start-ups in the DDL Concorrenza thus appears to be a completely inadequate passage that, beyond the details of the individual items, is a step backwards, a reversal of thrust, with respect to the consideration that government institutions have for start-ups. Start-ups have a structural relevance, they represent the future of the economic system, they are the realities capable of making a concrete contribution to the challenges we face today, the environmental ones, the social ones, the economic ones, the structural ones. What transpires instead is a marginalisation of consideration towards start-ups, which cannot be treated in the same way as individual regulations on the distribution of motorway tolls or the renewal of licences for dehors, they have a different, fundamentally different relevance.
Italian entrepreneurs have demonstrated, and continue to demonstrate every day that they are capable of doing things of great value, that they do so despite a regulatory, fiscal, and bureaucratic system that is much more complex than that of the other countries with which they are confronted, they say so, they even complain about it, but they go ahead, despite all the obstacles Italy remains the second industrial economy in Europe and one of the most advanced countries in the world, Italian entrepreneurs, including those who make innovative start-ups, are stronger than any obstacle that the baroque national system forces them to face. And that is why what is needed is a deep and courageous awareness on the part of the institutions to write and approve legislation capable of breaking down, at least in part, these barriers, unlocking all the potential and thus speeding up, and thus giving that much-needed shot in the arm. But entrepreneurs go on and will continue to do so, the start-ups that have sprung up in recent years, have grown, are increasingly sophisticated, international will continue to exist, to be born and to grow.
If then, one day, even government institutions, starting from start-ups, decide to fully realise the importance they have and decide to pass regulations, perhaps even at EU level, in order to create a system capable of competing on a global scale, capable in a concrete, practical, structural way of helping entrepreneurs, then yes, we would have taken an important step forward, but in the meantime, we will not give an inch because innovation, entrepreneurship, and the desire to make the world a better place, are stronger than any institutional inattention. (Photo by Frederic Christian on Unsplash)
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