The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry has been awarded first prize in the National Enterprise Support Awards 2013, an event sponsored by Government and the European Commission, in recognition of those entities and organisations who have made exceptional efforts to assist SMEs.

This was the second consecutive win for the Malta Chamber, who this year also managed to win second prize.

The Malta Chamber was awarded first prize for its “Internationalisation Survey” project.

The Internationalisation Survey project is the cornerstone of the work conducted by the Malta Chamber’s Internationalisation Desk.

Through its daily work, the desk continuously looks for companies with international activities or ambitions, and proceeds to interview them personally to ascertain which countries they target, what activity they undertake there and what sector they belong to, among other variables.

The data collected from this profiling exercise is filed in a database which the desk uses to make general assessments about the international orientation of Maltese companies.

This database acts as a prime source of inspiration for projects and initiatives initiated by the Internationalisation Desk, not least the formation of Business Councils.

The Malta Chamber won second prize with its Linking Enterprise project. Linking Enterprise is a service the Malta Chamber offers its members, consisting of company visits, and giving members the unique opportunity to share best practice from other companies.

Following these awards, the Malta Chamber will also be nominated to represent Malta with its Internationalisation Survey project at the European Enterprise Support Awards in Lithuania in November.