Call for more help for self-employed

The National Statistics Office has suggested improving the benefits extended to the self-employed and creating favourable conditions for entrepreneurship in order to boost the number of self-employed.

Giving a profile of the self-employed, supported by data, NSO executive director Alfred Camilleri said it was important for the government to assist them technically and financially, particularly in the start-up phase.

Another form of support could be the provision of unemployment benefits in the initial phases of self-employment, he told a news conference at the NSO offices in Valletta.

Data to September last year indicate that self-employment is a growth sector, with 14,429 self-employed persons working on their own and another 6,871 employing people.

The sector provides jobs for 10,000 additional workers and covers agriculture, manufacture, construction and services. The sector is male-dominated, with only 3,391 women registered as self-employed.

Just over half of those registered have a secondary level of education and about one in 10 have a tertiary level.

Finance and Economic Affairs Minister John Dalli said that last year 1,231 persons took up self-employment, a figure he described as a "great achievement".

Calling the self-employed the backbone of the economy, Mr Dalli said the government wanted to inculcate a mentality throughout the country that decisions needed to be taken without delay.

"Bureaucracy has to be business-friendly because it is there to serve clients," he said.

Parliamentary Secretary Edwin Vassallo noted that the greatest assistance given to the self-employed lay in research so as to enable them to branch out into innovative sectors.

The self-employed also needed assistance in getting access to finance, he added.