A new Nationalist government will extend the micro-invest scheme to businesses with a maximum of 30 employees, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning.

Speaking as he was going round the Qormi market, he said that during this legislature, the scheme, which was available to businesses which employed up to 10 people, had led to the creation of millions of euro worth of investment and created thousands of jobs.

As he met shoppers and the hawkers, Dr Gonzi spoke about the importance of small businesses to the economy.

He listed a number of measures for SMEs in PN’s electoral programme, including the allocation of EU funds for SMEs in e-business, research and development and innovation.

Asked about the upcoming EU budget, Dr Gonzi said this was a challenge but he hoped that an agreement would be reached.

The Prime Minister was also asked if he could guarantee Enemalta’s workers that they would not lose their job in the next five years. He said that it was Labour’s proposal that endangered Enemalta jobs because its proposal was not genuine. The government’s, on the other hand, was clear and Enemalta employees knew where they stood with the PN government.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.