SME COMPETITIVENESS
The National Operational Programme on Enterprises and Competitiveness encourages the competitive repositioning of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in southern Italy, by realising their unfulfilled potential, through both measures with immediate impact, to combat the effects of the current period of economic difficulty on the production fabric, and actions linked to a broader development and innovation strategy. The aim is therefore to combat and reverse the process of disinvestment and contraction that has hit enterprises in southern Italy particularly hard, through measures targeting the system's main areas of weakness. The actions and measures planned use the main development tools - access to credit and capital markets, investments, technological upgrades, start-ups, digitalisation of production processes and internationalisation - to reinforce businesses' central role as a factor for economic and social development in the southern Italian regions. Managing Authority: Directorate-General for Incentives to Enterprises - Division IV (DGIAI) Address: Viale America, 201 - 00144 Rome, Italy Contact: Anna Maria Fontana E-mail: adg.ponic@mise.gov.it