Dalla crisi allo sviluppo: quali strategie per le PMI?[From the crisis to the growth. Policies to sustain the SM firms]

In this short essay the contributions discussed at the Conference “From the crisis to the growth. Policies to sustain the SM firms”, taken place in June 2009 at the University of Padova, have been collected. In the contributions presented, moving from different points of view, the authors analyses the changing role of the industrial districts in this historical phase of large internationalization of the traditional regional productive network. These processes of external outsourcing are reshaping the technical and economic matrix of the local economy. In this context the role of the regional policies to reduce the negative impact on the occupational level and, at the same time, to promote the setting up of a different competence structure, compared with the past, in the new generations of labour forces are critically discussed. The apparent paradox of a developed region, like the Veneto region, that export labour force with an high level of education and import low level labour force is also analyzed. Finally, the crucial question if the change towards an economic structure with a reduced manufacturing sector and a more large service sector is or not an obliged transition to preserve the present standard of living is discussed.