The opposition spokesman for SMEs, Gavin Gulia, said today that the government had not kept its own deadline to set up a one stop shop for SMEs by June.

The commitment, he said, was given in the last Budget speech, and followed unkept promises made in three previous Budget speeches for the one stop shop to be set up.

Dr Gulia was speaking outside the offices of the Ministry of Finance, which is responsible for SMEs.

The setting up of this one stop shop, he said, was required under EU directives and was meant to cut red tape. In Malta, the unit was to be set up at Malta Enterprise and was to electronically group all services which small businesses required.

Dr Gulia said he wondered how the government could face the social partners when it did not meet its own deadlines.

This was, after all, the same government which had also not honoured its Budget promise to provide a micro-credit scheme for SMEs, he said.

All this reflected the low priority which the government gave to this sector, he said.