Four Maltese cluster organisations were granted a bronze label from the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis after committing to improve their processes and member services to make their sector more competitive.

The award process was led by Malta Enterprise.

Clusters are concentrations of companies and institutions working in a particular sector and committed to improving the international competitiveness of that sector.

Finance Malta, the Federation of Language Teaching Organisations (Feltom), the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) and the Malta Business Aviation Association were assessed on the basis of structure, financing, services offered, international cooperation and results their members attained over the last few years.

Finance Malta and Feltom will be audited by an international expert later this year, aiming for a silver label. The highest quality label for cluster management excellence is the gold label, held by 51 clusters in Europe.

Malta Enterprise will be working with the four organisations to prepare them for their respective quality audits. In the meantime, the Malta Information Technology Agency (Mita), a partner on this project, is working with a fifth organisation aiming for a quality label.

The European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis has been mandated by the European Commission to develop a system of quality labels as part of the EU’s effort to facilitate the setting up of world class clusters to improve its competitiveness.

“As the latest EU report on clusters states, companies located within clusters have higher likelihood to grow and companies that are looking for a location are more likely to pick a cluster as their base,” Malta Enterprise said.