Joining the Vice President at the announcement were Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy, Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor, Shaun Donovan, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and Karen Mills, Administrator of the Small Business Administration.

WHITEHOUSE: Council on Environmental Quality Blog

But it has also arguably left large parts of the European small business sector under-capitalized and impeded the development of a healthy market for corporate control, holding back economies such as Italy in an age when scale matters.

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The aim of the joint effort is to link 100, 000 Americans over age 50 with small business development resources, including workshops, conferences and mentoring programs.

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The company also said it plans to offset the mine-job cuts by creating the same number of jobs focused on housing and small business development in areas, including Rustenburg.

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It has worked with the Federation of Small Business to update planning policy to facilitate economic development and further changes to the planning system to promote economic development are currently out to consultation.

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Congress tried to facilitate the process back in 1999 when it passed the Veterans Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act, dedicated to redressing what it calls a lack of appropriate services for veteran entrepreneurs.

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Meanwhile, a survey of small businesses backed by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry (SCDI) and Strathclyde Business School has found that only 10% of respondents made extensive use of digital technology and had a clear digital strategy to support their internationalisation.

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