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Malta Chamber of SMEs officials and its members led by President Paul Abela, Vice-President Michael Galea and CEO Ms Abigail Agius Mamo earlier today met Minister Aaron Farrugia responsible for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects to discuss issues related to Transport including Maritime and supply chain.

The SME Chamber through the support of its member representatives , coming from various transport-related sectors, presented a number  of important proposals, amongst whichm regulation streamlining and the next steps and opportunities for the industries.

The Malta Chamber of SMEs and the Childcare Centres Providers Association (CCPA) have been forced to take actions by Childcare Centres in view that the authorities continue to refuse to remove Covid restrictions affecting operations in this sector.

With immediate effect none of the usually required visits and checks for this sector by authorities or entities will be accepted in any shape or form. Only emergency situations, which are to be brought to the attention of the association will be assessed and handled accordingly.

It should be noted that Childcare centres are already bound by limited capacities linked to their license, which safeguards that space inside the centres would be adequate and avoids any type of overcrowding by far. These centres have had their capacities ‘temporarily’ amended at the peak of the Covid crises, over two years, and this was never updated or removed.

We understand that like every other sector that has been allowed to operate freely, which is more than reasonable in the current circumstances, Childcare Centres are more than justified to demand for progress in this respect.

The current restrictions are resulting into centres not being able to operate according to the thresholds given to them by the license and this is not just resulting in loss of revenues but also lack of service to parents. Parents would have selected their preferred centre, many based on previous experience and convenience in terms of proximity, that would need to be kept on waiting lists or only allowed to attend for a very limited amount of time. Some centres are therefore losing valued customers due to lack of availability or constrained not to give the service they wish due to the still present Covid restrictions.

It feels like we are living in a parallel universe where Covid is only a threat in Childcare Centres. Otherwise, life is going on as normal, kids parties and all other activities are taking place as normal.

Following our numerous attempts in trying to resolve the issue related to childcare centers still being burdened by Covid regulations we are now unfortunately forced to initiate action since the diplomatic route, patience and reason has clearly failed.

The stance to maintain such regulations in place is considered an unjustified and overly burdensome imposition on these businesses.

Should the situation not be rectified, action will be escalated in the days to come.

The Malta Trust Foundation is currently working on the project entitled “Your Device, Your Right” (YDYR), the aim of the YDYR project is to provide second-hand laptops/tablets to disadvantaged students of all ages, to further their education, in cases where the families for these may not be able to purchase.

The Beverage Container Refund Scheme is starting soon and BCRS Malta organised an information session for SME Chamber members.

During this webinar which was addressed by Malta Chamber of SMEs President Mr Paul Abela, members had the opportunity to understand better how the scheme will be functioning and their role.

Members also had the opportunity to ask questions related to the scheme.

Members may request the recording of the information session provided by BCRS Malta by sending an email on .

The reforms announced in July 2021 include:

• the introduction of tax rates — expressed in euros per gigajoule — based on the energy content and environmental impact of energy products rather than on volume (as is generally the case now); and

• a widening of the tax base to include energy contents and processes that were previously not in scope;

• the recognition of new energy products such as hydrogen;

• measures to prevent the double taxation of stored electricity;

• a significant reduction in the ability for member states to exempt or reduce the rate applicable to energy products, processes and sectors;

• an increase in the minimum rates of tax to reflect current pricing, and annual adjustments to those minimum rates based on the Eurostat price index; and

• a five-yearly review safety net to keep the ETD up to date.

As the new ETD is a revision of an existing directive, its unanimous acceptance by all members of the EU Council is required. Any dissenters are likely to be called upon to suggest other solutions for reaching emissions reduction targets. Provided unanimity is achieved, the ETD should come into force in January 2023. Once adopted, Member States are expected to implement changes to their domestic legislation.

Translate to and from 27 languages! 

The Malta Chamber of SMEs and the European Language Resource Coordination (ELRC)  organised an information session about a free eTranslation service being offered for SMEs.

The informations session was presented by Dr Donatienne Spiteri, from the ELRC National Anchor Point (Malta) and Mr Mark Vella – DG Translation Language Officer at European Commission Representation in Malta.

eTranslation is provided by the European Commission, is a state-of-the-art online machine translation service. The eTranslation service is free of charge and will help you save time and money to translate your documents and text between any two official EU languages, and more! eTranslation guarantees the confidentiality and security of all your translated data.

During this information session, the speakers spoke about the advantage using this service and explained how SMEs can use it.

Those interested may watch the recording of this information session by clicking on this link.

You may also download the presentation used by Mr Mark Vella during the information session by clicking on this link.

To register for the Free etranslation service:

Click here

Step 1: Create an EU Login

Step 2: Click here and Register & Access

Those interested in using this service may also contact ELRC.

contact us on for more information.

During the first council meeting 6 Vice-Presidents were elected

Paul Abela has been confirmed as Malta Chamber of SMEs President for the year 2022-2023.

Following the Annual General Meeting held last week, today the first council meeting took place, during which Mr Paul Abela was elected and confirmed as President of the Malta Chamber of SMEs.

Mr Abela thanked the SME Chamber members and the executive council for electing him once again as President of the Malta Chamber of SMEs. He insisted that throughout this year he will continue his work in defending the interests of SMEs.

Mr Abela thanked the organisation’s CEO, Ms Abigail Mamo and the SME Chamber Staff for their hard and dedicated work and stated that the organisation was never as professional and held such a high profile as it did today.

During the first council meeting, Philip Fenech was confirmed as Deputy President – policy and strategy of the SME Chamber and 5 officers were elected as Vice-Presidents, Marcel Mizzi Vice President – finance and administration; Sergio Camilleri Vice President – sectors; Michael Galea  Vice President – districts and localities and Noel Gauci Vice President – International Relations and Mr Robert Micallef was elected for the first time as Vice President – Training and Development.

In its efforts to facilitate the VISA application process and the processing of TCN work permits, the Malta Chamber of SMEs is meeting individual entities and stakeholders in order to identify the bottlenecks in place and also facilitate communication.

The SME Chamber, together with representatives, has recently held a meeting with the Foreign Ministry over issues related with delayed appointment dates at the Visa Facilitation Service in India.

The SME Chamber noted that in instances appointments are being given in July, August and September, in some instances, no available slot is given. This situation is being experienced with both Student Visas and Work Visas

During the meeting the SME Chamber noted, that more resources need to be added and additional efforts need to be made to address the bottlenecks in place.

The SME Chamber will keep following this issue closely and alert authorities with issues experienced by members.

In the coming weeks, the SME Chamber, together with the respective representatives will be organising a series of information sessions, to help members sourcing the right TCNs. Interested members are to register their interest by sending an email on or call on 21232881.