Speaking during the debate on the Small Business Bill in Parliament earlier this week, Fredrick Azzopardi (PN) said the Bill was positive because it contained measures that would help SMEs move ahead.
The government had already made other giant steps forward in this sector. The government’s vision was the development of entrepreneurial policy to enhance employment and business.
Malta should be able to become a five-star business location. Government departments had to give an effective service for SMEs. Every official had to understand that facilitating business meant helping in boosting economic wealth and sustainability. The Bill called for more synergy and coordination.
Mr Azzopardi said that 99.8 per cent of businesses – with the exception of the agricultural sector – in the EU were SMEs each employing less than 10 people. These enterprises employed 66 per cent of all employees producing 55 per cent of GDP in member states.
EU programmes sought to facilitate access by SMEs to information, research and training in order to hone competitiveness. The Bill would help SMEs to develop their plans.
Referring to Gozo, Mr Azzopardi said that Malta Enterprise had provided incentives that addressed the island’s particular needs. These incentives included tax credits which encouraged investment and the creation of jobs.
Karl Gouder (PN) said an ever-growing number of SMEs would have to face unprecedented challenges. They were doing the country a favour because they were taking risks to create employment, so they needed all the help they could get, primarily through a reduction of bureaucracy.
The country should take note of, and act on, the EU’s dictum “Think small first”, without diminishing the merits of large employers.
The proposed college’s role was to get various regulators together to see that SMEs received coherent feedback that would help them expedite matters. The Prime Minister had said it was time to go from red tape to red carpet treatment.
Another important aspect would be the council meeting regularly to consult and share ideas on how better to proceed. SMEs were flexible because of their size. If rules were not updated from time to time, SMEs would not be helped as they needed to be.
Over the past two-and-a-half years the country had shown its resilience in the face of international crises, mostly thanks to SMEs that had soldiered on. Now that a better future beckoned it was the best time to be discussing this Small Businesses Bill.
Through the proposed SME Test, anyone drafting any new legislation would have to bear in mind how that legislation would affect SMEs. This was arguably the most important aspect being brought forward by the Bill.
SMEs should have their own ethical and operational standards.
Micro-invest and micro-credit measures introduced by the government to the tune of €51 million were encouraging SMEs to invest in their businesses, including higher employment.
The government especially had a duty to continually consult the sector’s representatives to keep developments under scrutiny. Initiatives taken in Malta were in line to those that had been taken by the EU. SMEs must be helped to transform challenges into opportunities, even to the point of small businesses competing to export on the global market, as some in Malta were already doing.
Mcast was a prime example of the government’s efforts to help SMEs find the skills they needed to survive and compete, Mr Gouder said.