Businesses lacking an entrepreneurial policy were taking great risks, Parliamentary Secretary Edwin Vassallo said at a presentation ceremony organised by the Foundation of Human Resources Development at the Chamber of Commerce in Valletta yesterday.

Mr Vassallo said that one of the most important points in the implementation of an entrepreneurial policy was education and training for entrepreneurship.

"The objective makes a huge difference to Malta's economic development, because it is through education that we can bring about a change in mentality. This change in mentality is particularly important in view of the transition period we are now in, moving from a managed economy to a more entrepreneurial one."

He said that in today's global market, it was not enough for a trader to see what the government was going to decide on his behalf, but he must see how to decide for himself. "The government's duty is to see how to give traders space in which to work and to see how to facilitate business. It is for this reason that each business must invest in information," he said.

Mr Vassallo said that the commercial success of each business today depended largely on an element of assessed risk-taking and innovation.