GRTU calls for setting up of €50m Libya business support fund
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and chairman of the Libyan National Transitional Council Mustafa Abdel Jalil
GRTU, the Chamber of Small Enterprises, is insisting the government sets up a €50 million fund solely to help Maltese companies with funding to invest in Libya.
According to the GRTU’s weekly newsletter Newstring, director general Vince Farrugia wrote to Finance Minister Tonio Fenech last Friday detailing “an urgent request to assist Maltese companies restarting in Libya”.
The GRTU said it was also time to establish a venture capital bank.
It called for urgent discussions on the available options to the authorities and the private sector on ways to finance a Libya Special Business Support Fund.
The fund could also be floated on the Malta Stock Exchange, the GRTU suggested.
Libya, the GRTU said in its letter, had played an important role in the Maltese economy: “A good number of companies had invested there for years and have seen their life’s work lost in a matter of days. These companies, as a consequence, are not strong enough to resettle and restart with immediate effect. Malta, as a country, cannot afford to have the sectors and the ground which was once so cultivated by the Maltese taken by other foreign companies.”
The GRTU stressed it was crucial to act quickly. There were many opportunities in Libya’s construction and infrastructure industries and in the oil sector.
“Maltese companies need help, urgently,” the GRTU said. “Malta will lose out unless the government is smart and quick enough to recognise what is at stake and set up a Libya Special Business Support Fund to help businesses win contracts and mobilise.
“No Maltese company or consortium will be able to start in Libya unless they are backed by a significant amount of capital. Even medium-sized contracts are currently out of the reach of Maltese companies.”
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Paul Micallef
Nov 24th 2011, 16:41
GIB GIB GIB dawn biss, mela mil GVERN tridu il-flus, li huma flus IL-HADDIEM biex timlew il bwiet minn fuq daharna, u meta tigi xi zieda ghal lgholi tal hajja jew xi haga zghira GHAN NISA MALTIN LI jinqabdu tqal tejdu le u fuq dan kollhu MELA MAHNIX il koll AHWA MALTIN???? Tejdu le. VERA LECCHES. GONZI JIEN HADDIEM semplici, naf li ha ceddi, ghax dawn jikmandaw, imma please mit TAXXA TIGHEI ITTIJOM XEJN??????????????????????????
Joseph Aquilina
Nov 24th 2011, 16:08
So these business where not insured? aaaa ... I know ... the general feeling of bussiness men these days is that their insurance is the tax payer!!!
Ms D. Borg
Nov 24th 2011, 14:55
50 million from our taxes so that some businessmen will get richer? You must be crazy!
Mr ALBERT LEONE GANADO
Nov 24th 2011, 13:55
Currently Libya offers great investment opportunities as well as major risks as the recent attack on Palm City clearly shows. Any investment at this stage cannot be consideried as anything other than pure venture capital . However one must accept that if our enterprises do not seize the early opportunity they will lose to other competitors who are rapidly moving in. If government or public subscription is to support such ventures we as taxpayers have to be assured that we will receive the fair returns which venture capital often rightfully expects if the company is successful . This must include.significant control and ownership of such investment ventures. Maltese enterprises have the habit of expecting others to assume the risk while they reap all the eventual fruits. If such conditions obtain then certainly it is better to bet on a Libyan venture then lend money solely out of Eurozone solidarity to Greece with no hope of early benefits or redemption.
j brincat
Nov 24th 2011, 13:48
Why doesn't GRTU set up this fund from 'its own funds'? It's very easy to go to Big Mama but more difficult to dip one's hand in its own pocket!
Come off it GRTU!
(jb)
Mr Neville A Cassar
Nov 24th 2011, 13:27
THE GRTU and its Members can go put their own money in Libya !
The taxpayer doesnt get any benefit... its the companies themselves who profit from their enterprises in Libya!
€50 million fund.... go fish for them !
Paul Caruana
Nov 24th 2011, 13:21
Considering the unique and difficult circumstances that Malta found itself in after the recent Libyan troubles, should not the Maltese government ask the EU to help it fund such a scheme?
M Cassar
Nov 24th 2011, 13:10
If such a fund is to be formed, it must be out of businessmen's money and not the taxpayers. Mr Farrugia has once again come up with one of his provocative demands and as usual he probably does not know what he is talking about. The idea of a venture capital bank has been floated as a deus ex machina for economic stagnation for many years. It will simply not work as there isn't the critical mass of projects needed to spread the risk. Moreover, please stop this al la carte free luches demand for businesses....free lunches that will have to be financed by tax payers.