INTRODUCTION
At the start of 1999 there were 75,000
VAT-registered businesses in Wales. The
number of small business start-ups in the
first half of 1997 was 13,000, representing
4.8 per cent of the total and an increase of
almost 40 per cent over the 1996 figure.
The growth of small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) in Wales has been
fuelled by various government initiatives
(the Valleys Initiative, the Welsh
Development Agency and European
Regional Development initiatives) as a
response to the disappearance of the
nationalised heavy industries (coal mining
and steel) which characterised