These may include technical assistance for financial intermediaries involved in assessing the eligibility of loan applications or the value of knowledge assets; investment-readiness schemes covering incubating, coaching and mentoring SMEs and fostering their interaction with potential investors; measures to raise the awareness of venture capital firms and business angels of the growth potential of innovative SMEs involved in Union funding programmes; schemes to attract private investors to support the growth of innovative SMEs and ...[+++]mid-caps; actions to improve cross-border and multi-country debt and equity financing; schemes for encouraging philanthropic foundations and individuals to support R and schemes to foster corporate venturing and encourage the activities of family offices and business angels.

4. Reduce administrative burdens and promote entrepreneurship Building on the Small Business Act, and in order significantly reduce administrative burdens on business, promote their cash flow and help more people to become entrepreneurs, the EU and Member States should: Ensure that starting up a business anywhere in the EU can be done within three days at zero costs and that formalities for the hiring of the first employee can be fulfilled via a single access point; Remove the requirement on micro-enterprises to prepare annual accounts (the estimated savings for these companies are € 7bn per year) and limit the capital requirements of the ...[+++] European private company to one euro; Accelerate the adoption of the European private company statute proposal so that from early 2009 it can facilitate cross border business activities of SMEs and to allow them to work under a single set of corporate rules across the EU; Ensure that public authorities pay invoices, including to SMEs, for supplies and services within one month to ease liquidity constraints and accept e-invoicing as equivalent to paper invoicing (this could deliver cost reductions of up to 18 € Bn); any arrears owed by public bodies should also be settled; Reduce by up to 75% the fees for patent applications and maintenance and halve the costs for an EU trademark.

It struck me that a company that had begun its life as a Crown corporation, and then had been privatized, should be treated in the same way as any other private sector Canada Business Corporations Act company.

-Prioritise job creation and harness private sector investmentsby creating a favourable business environment, enhancing regional integration and international competitiveness, promoting corporate social responsibility and best business practices, including digitalisation, and supporting the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including in the social and solidarity economy.

In Halifax two weeks ago the upper management of two major corporations told me that doing business with Frank McKenna's government is like doing business with a private enterprise corporation.

A large component of that was the lowering of personal income taxes and corporate taxes, which gave the required incentives for private business, not government but private business, to drive the economy and keep the people in the country and working.