During the Peer Review in Florence the host wants to focus especially on the access to credit and public funds for SMEs. In particular, they are interested in the role of the reduction of bureaucratic burdens on SMEs played in this context by public and private intermediaries. The starting point of the Peer Review will lie on the comparison between the experience of FidiToscana, a finance company owned by the Tuscany Region and the major (public or private) banks operating in the area, and other experiences abroad.
They would like the following questions to be answered:
1. How much is the access to credit and to public funds negatively affected by bureaucratic burdens?
2. In this respect, what are the major difficulties encountered by SMEs?
3. Comparing different experiences, what bureaucratic/administrative burdens emerge to be necessary and what are not?
4. Which simplification strategies were adopted? Which one proved to be the most effective? Which policies have performed best in funding SMEs and reducing administrative burdens?
5. What kind of relationship between intermediaries and Public Administration should be established?