Small businesses generally have the capacity to attract those who are low to moderately skilled, and are therefore best placed to engage the overwhelming pool of the unemployed. Small businesses should not only rely on tax incentives for encouragement to expand their businesses but should also drive the agenda in an effort to engage government in seeking most appropriate ways to incentivise their activities.
From a broad perspective, competitiveness is simply the ability of an economy to supply, through its working, an adequate and growing flow of value added. Accordingly, it appears to me that in open systems competitiveness comes to coincide with potential growth. In Europe, and especially in Italy, the potential growth of GDP has diminished in recent years.