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The Malta Chamber of SMEs has come to members, immediately following the Budget 2021 announcements, with a discussion with Malta Enterprise CEO, Mr Kurt Farrugia, to shed light on a number of measures mentioned in the Budget, the idea behind them and what to expect in the coming days, weeks and months.

Below we have included the main budget highlights as well as the added value information that we have up till today.

Vouchers 

Budget announcement:  Another round of vouchers is set to be issued. The vouchers will be divided in more of an equal manner – 60 for hotels, restaurants, accommodation and 40 for retail and services.

More Information:  

The Voucher system will not only be relaunched but will be also wider in scope. Whilst, originally, only the businesses that were forced to close by order of the Health Authorities due to Covid, were able to register to take part in the voucher scheme, the next round will give greater opportunities for new businesses to participate since other sectors that were not ordered to close where in reality still closed as they were seeing no business at all. The voucher new voucher scheme should therefore be open to all businesses that have suffered severe loss of business during Covid.

The SME Chamber is currently in discussions with the government on the best time to re-launch the new set of vouchers.

 

Wage Supplement 

Budget announcement:  Extended till end of March 2021 and will be revamped to ensure those businesses needing the help most will be getting it.

More Information:  

The wage supplement will be taking a fairer assessment of how businesses were impacted by the pandemic. The government will therefore be moving away from the nace code system and assessing actual impact. One way being discussed is to calculate the impact of the reduction based on change in turnover year on year. It is still unsure which type of business return or otherwise will be utilised but the ultimate aim is to ensure that those businesses hit the worst by the pandemic get the best in terms of aid and others will get an amounts that is relative to their impact.

The new Wage Supplement will not add any bureaucracy to businesses and will also be worked in a way to make it easy for Malta Enterprise to evaluate. Any changes put in place in the Wage Supplement will be discussed with the Chamber of SMEs as social partner.

Apart from being extended till end of March, there will also be a possibility to integrate new employees on the wage supplement. The mechanics and eligibility of this is still being discussed.

New Malta Enterprise Innovation Scheme 

Budget announcement:  Malta Enterprise to issue a scheme targeted at productive investment. This scheme will be open to businesses employing less than 50 employees that choose to embark on innovative projects including tech investments to improve their operation in terms of efficiency and cost, assistance in finding new markets and employing qualified employees. The scheme will be open for a duration of 1 year and will finance 50% of the investment up to Eur 200,000. The aid will increase by an additional Eur 35,000 if the investment is carried out in collaboration with a research institute.  

More Information:  

In terms of how to calculate the 50 employees, the likelihood is that companies will be taken individually in terms of the calculation and not altogether as a group.

Mainly targeted at the manufacturing sector to regenerate and reinvent business functioning through innovative systems and upgrades. This includes Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things, increase sustainability, coming up with a new product, investing in new IT systems, etc.

eCommerce 

Budget Announcement:  Help for businesses selling online and amalgamation with distribution systems. 

More Information:  
A wider scheme in terms of targeted business audience that will continue supporting businesses to have access to the different tools necessary to successfully sell online.

 

Industrial Areas 

Budget Announcement:  €450M for the coming 7 years for new spaces for businesses – Including spaces for SMEs and new Logistics Hub 

More Information: 
Capital expenditure in new industrial spaces to ensure we have enough industrial capacity so that industry finds the physical space they need. These are not office spaces – which are abundantly available, but state-of-the-art business incubation areas for innovative local and foreign businesses in life-sciences and the digital sphere.

 

Export and Foreign Markets 

Malta Enterprise CEO Kurt Farrugia also mentioned the increased importance and potential he is seeing in nearshoring and the increased focus on forming our own new ideas at local level and supporting indigenous Maltese businesses to grow. Mr Farrugia emphasised on the need to lower our country’s reliance on Chinese and South Asian imports. Instead Malta Enterprise will be supporting tapping into new markets of great potential to export which certainly includes Africa.

The top 10 basics to follow

 

The number of new cases in Malta remains on the high side when compared to lower numbers that we have seen before. It is also however true that we are all living in the closest form of normality and finding this tricky balance of keeping numbers down while life moves on. 

While the country continues to limit the effects of Covid and also the effects this brings on the economy and our society, disruption is unfortunately the order of the day.   

As those following updates from the Ministry for Health related to the virus cases know, on a daily basis, a small number of the cases reported relate to contagion at the place of work. This of course causes an even greater level of disruption and being careful and formalising protocols to follow will help reduce the disruption at the workplace. 

Each workplace needs to be analysed on its own merit but it is important that this takes place as it is a legal duty of the employer to ensure a safe working environment.  

 

The most basic steps to follow are: 

1. Staff experiencing symptoms not to come to the workplace (fever, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, runny/blocked nose, headaches, tiredness, muscle pain, loss of taste, loss of smell, vomiting, diarrhoea, together with additional symptoms being recognised including sinus pain and expectoration)

2. Ensure a high level of cleaning and hygiene at the workplace

3. Making masks/visors available for staff to be worn in common areas and avoiding prolonged use of common areas such as kitchens and taking it in turns 

4. Making masks/visors available for visitors to keep on for the duration on their stay at the workplace 

5. Making hand sanitisers available (70% alcohol based) 

6. Clustering staff members who have to work in close proximity and avoid interaction between clusters. Communication between staff as much as possible to be done from own workspace by phone or online 

7. Social distancing to be observed in general 

8. Reorganisation of layouts, shifts and working time where possible 

9. Open windows or extractors where possible to enhance circulation of air 

10. Signage (especially for larger working environments) as a reminder and awareness raising tool 

 

The full set of measures one can follow at the workplace can be find through the following link: https://bit.ly/2GFmR3k 

The full set of guidelines per workplace type and activity can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/36OcBQQ  

Stay Safe! 

Following last Saturday’s election and today’s swearing-in as Opposition Leader, the Malta Chamber of SMEs congratulated Dr Bernard Grech.

The Malta Chamber of SMEs said that it looks forward to meet Dr Grech to initiate discussions with him as leader of the opposition, especially on the current Covid situation and recovery plans for SMEs.

The Malta Chamber of SMEs also thanked Dr Adrian Delia for his service during the last years.

Malta’s Chamber of SMEs has called for a second round of vouchers but with more focus on retail outlets

Residents of Malta could soon receive a second round of government vouchers, with Prime Minister Robert Abela confirming discussions are being held to this effect.

“The first scheme was extremely successful,” Abela told the press yesterday. “Not only did we invest €45 million in our people but this investment prompted more public expenditure, so it had an accumulative effect.”

In the first round of vouchers, people were given €80 to spend at establishments licensed by the Malta Tourism Authority, such as hotels, restaurants and bars, and €20 to spend at a retail outlet or service that was closed as a result of COVID-19.

The scheme, which has been extended to the end of October, was a roaring success, helping keep business afloat.

The Malta’s Chamber of SMEs has called for a second round of vouchers but with more focus on retail outlets.

“Our main principle is to preserve jobs and to keep businesses strong,” Robert Abela said.

Source: LovinMalta.com

The Malta Chamber of SMEs will hold its annual event on Wednesday 18th November 2020

The Malta SME Week 2020 has been launched  with various activities throughout a span of 7 weeks targeting different audiences.

The Malta SME Week is part of the European Commission’s European SME Week events aimed at generating public awareness amongst those people who wish to start a business or are already in business and wish to grow and scale-up their activities. This year, the calendar of events for SME Week will be spread over seven weeks making it possible for businesses to participate in different events.

It is a joint effort with the constituted bodies that support enterprises and this year’s edition will feature a wide range of events targeting different audiences. SME Week ties with the Ministry’s efforts to promote entrepreneurship so that more people, in particular younger ones, consider becoming an entrepreneur as a career option, whilst providing information on national and EU entities assistance to micro, small and medium-sized businesses and also giving recognition to entrepreneurs for their contribution to Malta’s welfare, jobs, innovation, and competitiveness.

During this years Maltaz SME Week the Malta Chamber of SMEs will once again hold its annual conference entitled “The SME Conference – Getting ready for a new era” on the 18th of November. More information will provided soon.

Click here to view the Malta SME Week 2020 programme: SME week programme A4 – Final.