Tax and energy are the priorities for businesses. Maneuver? Still insufficient

The priorities? Lower taxes and energy costs. The maneuver? Insufficient to support businesses and growth. The recipe for the next 10 years? Tax and bureaucracy reform, young people, business-oriented economic policy, made in Italy and supply chains. In the midst of the discussion on the 2027-29 budget law and under the pressure of high fuel and high bills, consequences of the crises in the Middle East and Ukraine, the opinion of Italians that emerges from the survey "The real country", carried out by Only Numbers and edited by Alessandra Ghisleri, seems to have clear ideas on the need to relaunch competitiveness, innovation and youth talent but also on the fact that politics and institutions are not doing enough for this.

Politics, to quote the survey carried out at the beginning of the week on a sample of a thousand interviewees, is too far from the real needs of companies (for 58%) and the measures included in the 2027 budget - such as interventions on energy, mini-Irpef for young people and new hires, flat tax for VAT numbers - are at most a good starting point (39%) but remain insufficient for 7 out of 10 Italians. «The numbers reveal a distance: almost six out of ten Italians feel the politics far from the needs of companies" observes Valentina Fontana, curator of the "Treviso D'Autore - Le Rotte" exhibition during which the investigation is presented and which aims to put "institutions, entrepreneurs and journalism at the same table to transform the requests of the real country into concrete proposals".

Only for a third of those interviewed, Italian companies, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, have broad shoulders and a toolbox suitable for dealing with the ongoing transformations without going astray on international markets, even if (for the majority of those who responded to the survey) the Made in Italy card, made up of quality, manufacturing and craftsmanship, is a fundamental passport for competing. Economic policy choices - 71% of Italians say this - can be of great support in two directions: growth in size and access to international markets.

«The fabric of small and medium-sized businesses is what supports the country: 90% of Italian companies have fewer than 20 employees – explains Alessandra Ghisleri – To make Italy grow, lighter taxation and bureaucracy and the ability to include young people in the company fabric become fundamental, together with technological innovation and the valorisation of Made in Italy. The survey reveals the feeling that our companies are less ready than the rest of the world. But it is, in fact, just a sensation: there are Italian companies that compete and win on international markets every day." If in the short term the urgent needs for entrepreneurs are definitely called tax and contribution pressure to be reduced and energy costs to be contained (they are a priority for 50% of those interviewed), but regulatory stability and investments in research and innovation also have an impact, in the long term the recipe for a competitive Italy has more ingredients: a structural reform of taxes and bureaucracy, the valorisation of young people and talents, a stable and business-oriented economic policy, the strengthening of Made in Italy and national supply chains.