In the past days, the government honoured another promise made to the small business sector; that of providing them with easily accessible credit facilities to help them launch new projects and generate investment.
The microcredit scheme, which was a Budget measure announced to provide small businesses with soft loans, is now reality and we are proud to announce that its portfolio has expanded five-fold to €51 million.
Microcredit has been possible thanks to an agreement reached between the government, the European Investment Fund and Bank of Valletta as the winner of an international competitive tender. These funds will surely give energy to our small businesses as they will be able to benefit from loans of up to €500,000, payable over a 10-year period.
This initiative has grown in more than one direction. Thanks to the mentioned agreement, the scheme will be available for all small- and medium-sized businesses not just those employing up to nine persons. We want to make sure we reach as many companies as possible, making it as widely available as possible. Having said that, however, the government is making it a point that the micro enterprise will remain at the centre of this initiative, retaining 20 per cent of the portfolio.
This scheme is the latest in a series of schemes and incentives, announced by the government over the past months, aimed at various sectors and aspects of our small business sector.
The European Regional Development Funds together with the European Social Funds have helped numerous companies finance innovative and challenging projects.
Maltese companies have invested in environment-related projects; devised new processes or products; upgraded their IT infrastructure and recruited more people in the meantime. By means of the Gateway to Export scheme, other enterprises have also been given the possibility to look for markets beyond our shores while others have embarked on new projects aimed at generating fresh activity.
The Microinvest scheme, and the substantial tax credits it offers, has attracted a very healthy interest in the past weeks and is helping hundreds of micro enterprises invest in their own businesses. Be it the renovation of their retail outlet, the purchase of new machinery that will help their small factory be more efficient, the installation of alternative energy-generating equipment, which will make their business more fuel-efficient, or the employment of new personnel, that will increase their skill set, Microinvest has helped various micro companies be creative and venture beyond their limits.
These schemes and incentives are a living testament of this government’s constant contact with the grass roots of the sector. We are fully aware that, like every other living being, our SMEs have ever-changing needs and the government makes it a point to keep an ear to the ground in order to understand and be in a position to act effectively. Be it via the public consultation meetings we held in March or the informative sessions explaining our schemes. Be it the open days organised by Malta Enterprise or the constant contact we keep with the representative bodies of the sector, we make it a point to keep on working in unison for the needs of our small businesses.
Since I was entrusted with the responsibility of this sector, I made it a point to meet, and am still meeting, as many small businesses as possible in order to understand their aspirations and experience first-hand their realities.
I will never forget how, thanks to a government scheme, a mother of four managed to launch her own company, finding her niche, establishing herself within it and is now looking into growing further. I will neither forget how a former dockyard worker has set up shop in one of our specifically-designed SME parks and is now producing high-end luxury yacht fittings, employing another four workers, working long shifts in order to keep up with the order-book.
We are especially proud of these success stories and we want to encourage them and others to flourish further. Microcredit is another solution which is the fruit of continuous dialogue and consultation.
We believe Microcredit is another opportunity for our small businesses to grow and establish themselves further in their respective sectors. Microcredit underlines the government’s commitment to an economic policy based on the generation of jobs while keeping the small business sector at the centre of attention.
Dr Azzopardi is Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Land.