The Malta Business Bureau has committed itself to undertake a study which examines the difficulties small businesses face when seeking access to finance, bureau officials told Minister Jason Azzopardi at a meeting on Monday.
During the discussion on the draft Entrepreneurship 2020 Act’recently issued by the European Commission’s DG Enterprise and Industry, the MBB highlighted how the document mentions the importance of access to finance, a factor the MBB believes is a major stumbling block for SMEs in fulfilling their objectives.
The MBB delegation, led by its president George Vella, explained how its planned study will focus on identifying ways to increase access to finance while tapping opportunities for both small businesses and finance institutions.
Mr Vella referred to the draft as a supplementary set of measures to the Small Business Act but cautioned that it should not replicate initiatives running in parallel with other EU competitiveness-related processes, like the SBA and the EU2020 Strategy.
Among the Entrepreneurship Act’s objectives is the inception of innovative support measures in favour of entrepreneurship. The MBB congratulated the government for being proactive in establishing the Business First service at Malta Enterprise, which brought about a user-friendly single point of contact which was particularly helpful to start-ups.
The MBB also welcomed the facilitation of business transfer – another issue tackled by the draft policy document – but recommended that a tailor-made support service addressing business transfers and acquisitions, similar to the one-stop-shop service provided by Business First, should be adequately set up. The initiative would provide the necessary legal, audit and mentoring support during business transitions.
The bureau’s delegation agreed that the act’s mission to foster an entrepreneurial spirit should be a key element in Malta’s plan to reduce the number of early school leavers. Entrepreneurship could serve as a means to instill self-responsibility among young people and encourage them to venture into their own entrepreneurial activity.
Female entrepreneurship is an important goal of the Europe 2020 Strategy, and the MBB is contributing to this sphere as a strategic partner in AMIE, an EU-funded project promoting women in business Malta.
The MBB officials pointed out that several issues related to internationalisation were absent from the document. One is the support provided to SMEs to expand their business on a cross-border level.
Export-driven growth is what contributes effectively and efficiently to the expansion of micro-businesses into more structured and less volatile entrepreneurial set-ups. Mr Vella explained how internationalisation is critical in the context of Maltese businesses’ attempts to make a success of the European Single Market and cross-border trade is a fundamental aspect of the everyday economic dynamics.
Shortcomings in the draft Entrepreneurship Act are to be discussed at this week’s first informal Competitiveness Council meeting under the incoming Cypriot presidency.
Among them is the draft act’s failure to adequately address facilitation of business transfer.
The MBB will continue to monitor discussions on the draft at EU level in upcoming Competitiveness Council meetings, Mr Vella said.