Category: Articles

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 fabian.demicoli@smechamber.mt.

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 fabian.demicoli@smechamber.mt 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 admin@smechamber.mt or call on 21232881.

THE 73rd ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING FOCUSED ON THE WORK DONE THROUGHOUT 2021

The Malta Chamber of SMEs on Thursday 28th April 2022 held its 73rd Annual General Meeting.

In his opening address, President Mr Paul Abela said that while 2021 continued to be significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, we are now recovering and getting back to normality. Mr Abela also said that a new serious crises has since also developed with the conflict in Ukraine and the SME Chamber is also closely working with members and the effects on businesses.

Mr Abela highlighted that throughout this year, the SME Chamber continued to assist and be of support to thousand of businesses and ensuring they have a trusted partner to rely on.

During this AGM, Malta Chamber of SMEs CEO Ms Abigail Agius Mamo presented the Chamber’s Annual Report for 2021.

Ms Agius Mamo explained several milestones achieved throughout 2021 and said that the Malta Chamber of SMEs has once a year made it impact on businesses this year and highlighted 30 tangible achievements businesses gained thanks to the work the SME Chamber has done. Amongst these are;

• Aid packages for different sectors affected by the pandemic

• Extension of Wage supplement and tax deferrals through 2021

• Improvement of Covid restrictions to help business function and recuperate

• New round of vouchers

• Rent subsidy scheme widened to cater for the difficulties in logistics

• Achieving the biggest incentive within the Malta Enterprise portfolio – Smart and Sustainable Grant Scheme

• Reducing the delays with the processing of single work permit

• Facilitating the process of change in employer for TCNs

• Restarting the acceptance of student visa applications

• New agreement for Pharmacy Owners

• Right for a bank account

• Extending the Recovery and Resilience Funds for the benefit of the private sector

There were among many other achievements for the SME Chamber and its members. Apart from this, the Malta Chamber of SMEs also won two prestigious awards for its support to the business community, one in Malta and one at EU level.

The members of the Malta Chamber of SMEs unanimously approved the organisations’ Annual and Financial reports and commended the SME Chamber President, CEO, Council and the team for the hard work and results achieved.

The Wage Supplement Scheme which has been ongoing since March 2020, will be extended until May 2022 and terminated that same month. The Government announced this during a Press Conference addressed by Miriam Dalli, Minister for the Environment, Energy and Sustainable Development and Malta Enterprise CEO Mr Kurt Farrugia.

Malta Chamber of SMEs President Mr Paul Abela and CEO Ms Abigail Agius Mamo participated during this Press Conference.

Over the last 26 months, this scheme’s total investment is more than 720 million Euros, has safeguarded almost 120,000 jobs and has assisted more than 17,000 companies including self-employed.