This paper analyses the main public programmes that promote firm creation in Italy. The authors realise an evaluation of the results that have been achieved over time through interviews with selected firms and instituional agents. Although in Italy this policy topic has not been very much discussed, due to the strong endogenous development of new firms, from the 1980s onwards, new needs and opportunities to promote firm creation within the private sector have now been identified. The selected programmes are two: the first is linked to the Law 44/1995, focused on stimulating the relatively static reality of the economy in the South of Italy, and the other is linked to the network of the Business Innovation Centres, oriented to promote the creation of firms in high-technology sectors. Both achieved good results in terms of their main objectives (in the first case, increasing the entrepreneurial spirit and, in the second case, promoting the entrepreneurial innovation). In contrast, these programmes have not been able to solve the employment problem (tha was also targeted) in the selected regions. These programmes are effective when they are treated as stimula that the public sector sends to the private sector as a way to contribute to the growth of its competitiveness. The final part of the paper emphasises a set of elements and policies that could promote and/or improve the process of firm creation in developing countries, with special reference to Latin America.