Industry requests €15.5m in EU funds

Malta Enterprise has received a total of 260 applications from industry for financial aid under the EU's European Regional Development Fund. The total amount requested in this second call adds up to €15.5 million, even though the budget available is €9.86 million.

The European Regional Development Fund helps stimulate economic development and regeneration in the least prosperous regions of the European Union.

The schemes funded are international competitiveness, small start up, innovation, environment and e-business.

There were 69 applications, including three from Gozo, for the international competitiveness scheme amounting to €4.55 million. The funds available under this scheme total €2.55 million and a Malta Enterprise spokesman said €2 million is to be shifted from the environment scheme to international competitiveness "since we want to use this economic lull as an opportunity for Maltese companies to think about exploring new markets thereby giving more opportunity to local industry".

The small start-up scheme attracted 36 applicants, including two from Gozo, with the requests amounting to €1.78 million. The funds available for the second call of this scheme amount to €1.8 million.

The innovation scheme received 74 applications, including 11 from Gozo, and the total funds requested amounted to €5.8 million. The budget available is €2.05 million.

The environment scheme attracted the least number of applications, 17, including one from Gozo, and the total funds requested add up to only €1.08 million. The budget available for this second call was initially €2.64 million, but the poor response allowed Malta Enterprise to channel €2million from this scheme to the international competitiveness scheme.

The e-business scheme attracted 64 applications, with none from Gozo, and total funds requested amounted to €2.41 million. The budget for this second call was of €1.42 million.

This second call for financial aid under the European Regional Development Fund is even more successful than the first one, for which there were 212 applications and requests totalling €14.21 million, of which €9.5 million was allocated by Malta Enterprise.