Todde, Meloni and Cuccureddu speak at the Confartigianato conference on regional measures to support Sardinian businesses.

“The Sardinia Region is working to overcome the problems of businesses on the island”. This was assured by President Alessandra Todde and her deputy and councilor for Programming and Budget, Giuseppe Meloni at the conference entitled "Preventing and overcoming business crises is possible", promoted by Confartigianato and held this morning at the Sandalia hotel in Nuoro.

In their speeches, President Todde and Vice President Meloni highlighted the work implemented by the Region through the regulatory instruments in favor of small and medium-sized artisan enterprises to revitalize a strategic sector for the island's economy. A sector that counts over 30 thousand registered companies and over 60 thousand workers employed, but which in the first quarter of 2025 recorded an extremely negative balance between new registrations and business closures.

“Craftsmanship tells the story of our territory and cIt holds a wealth of knowledge that must be protected and enhanced because it represents our deepest essence, what unites us and identifies us as a people: one Sardinian worker in five is employed in an artisan business, a force that keeps entire production sectors afloat and that plays an important role in countering depopulation dynamics”, recalled President Todde in her speech, and then underlined: “As a Council, we are very clear about the importance of artisan businesses in the Sardinian production context and we are aware of the daily challenges that companies must face: from bureaucracy to access to credit, from the lack of qualified labor to training, up to innovation services. Your strength – added the president – ​​lies in the ability to do, to create, to preserve, to pass on and to innovate. We, as a Region, are here to listen to you and to support you”.

“Today we want to talk about technology, innovation, high specialization, training and participation in public tenders. Too often, in fact, our small and medium-sized artisan businesses do not have the necessary size to access these opportunities, and yet it is precisely here that the public administration can generate economic benefits for the territory", highlights the president, who then recalls "the 30 million allocated for artisans therefore represent a first step, but alone they are not enough. We must think about how businesses are structured. We need to encourage networks, consortia, forms of collaboration that allow them to invest in innovation and grow together.

A theme that is also intertwined with the Einstein Telescope Challenge, a project that the president defines as “not only a scientific opportunity for the territory, but a transformative intervention for the whole of Sardinia”. It is a clear message also addressed to artisans: “If they are able to create a quality offer, they will be able to seize great opportunities”.

The statements of President Todde are echoed by the arguments of Vice President Giuseppe Meloni: "With over 30.000 registered companies and over 60.000 workers employed, craftsmanship represents 20% of the Sardinian business system and a vital resource for our territory", Meloni highlighted. "The Council is intervening to revitalize the sector with the refinancing of Regional Law 949, which was provided with 90 million euros in the three-year period: the practices will be processed and the applications can be presented in the coming months".

The 949 was also affected the Crafts Councillor, Franco Cuccureddu, could not attend the conference due to other institutional commitments, but still wanted to send a greeting message, he specified: “In yesterday evening’s meeting – wrote Cuccureddu – the Regional Council definitively approved the implementing provisions for the publication of the call for tenders on Law 949. Thus, from next Tuesday 8th until July 28th it will be possible to pre-load applications and attachments, while the click-day is set for July 29th. The call for tenders will remain open until October 31st”.

“The financial endowment is the largest that the Region, to my memory, has ever put out to tender in favour of artisan enterprises: a good 30 million euros for the capital portion and 550 thousand euros for the interest portion, this last sum, in all probability, will be increased by at least a further million euros with the summer financial maneuver”, underlined the councilor Cuccureddu.

Vice President Meloni also recalled the investment plans already underway. “In November we approved the guidelines on five intervention directions, some of which were specifically designed for small and medium-sized businesses. These plans include targeted aid: non-repayable support of up to 50% is provided for small businesses and up to 40% for medium-sized businesses. Overall, in addition to the 30 million in regional funds from Law 949, we will also use resources from European structural funds, particularly the ERDF. We are in a hurry to spend them, but above all to plan and invest them well: supporting the productive fabric of SMEs is the best way to get Sardinia out of the crisis”.

Among the other measures implemented by the Regional Council there is also the recent call for tenders which extends the recognition of Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) also for non-food artisanal products and the call promoted by the Regional Programming Centre (active from 7 November 2024) which provides incentives for companies that provide non-scheduled public transport services. “Furthermore,” concluded Vice President Meloni, “we are intervening on companies to address the challenge of depopulation: the relaunch of internal areas cannot in fact ignore support for micro and small businesses that keep our local economies alive.”

Before the greetings of President Todde and Vice President Meloni, the conference was introduced by regional president of Confartigianato, Giacomo Meloni, and also saw the participation of the mayor of the city that hosted the meeting, Emiliano Fenu.

The following speeches were given by Sara Pala (lawyer at the Tempio Pausania Bar Association), accountant Giovanni Nicola Paba and Antonella Mazzarella, head of the business consultancy service at Confartigianato Gallura. The work was coordinated by Daniele Serra, regional secretary of Confartigianato.