Malta Chamber of SMEs

Malta Energy celebrates its first milestone in a bid to defeat Malta’s renewable energy inertia

Posted on 07.02.202008.09.2020 by SME Chamber

The subject of energy sustainability is certainly an area that Malta can do much more and accomplish better results. Our island presents many challenges but certainly ample opportunities that must be explored to the fullest of potential.

MaltaEnergy Ltd, a partnership between the Malta Chamber of SMEs and the Water Services Corporation was set up exactly for this reason. The company can now announce its first successful milestones and is an example of how targets can be met in line with the best practices.

The company invested a lot of time and effort to make sure that the projects being offered would involve as many enterprises as possible from procurement stage, whilst respecting E.U. directives. This way of doing public procurement is a best practice which moves away from the common practice of demanding to deal with just one entity that can take up all the work. It gives SME structures the direct opportunity to participate and provide quality projects.

The final project will involve putting specific rooftops to good use, and generate renewable energy.

The tender has now been awarded and is nearing implementation stage. A total of 5 different enterprises will take up the project with full ownership and responsibility, and with no cost or risk to the government. In return the operators will get a return from the energy generated and business stability for 20 years, strengthening our green economy and green jobs. The project will ultimately provide better grid stability and put us in a better position to cater for foreseen increased requirements our country will have on renewables.

MaltaEnergy Ltd is confident that these models are best practices for other public entities to follow and will pave the way for other projects of this sort.

If future projects are issued on this model, Malta will be in a much better position to reach and maybe exceed its renewable energy targets. In this case, the project capacity has doubled due to more efficient use of space, from 1 MW as originally estimated, to 2MW as proposed by the winning bidders.

It is estimated that the project will generate circa 3 million kilowatts of clean energy annually.

Businesses optimistic for 2020, Political instability and reduced profitability negatively affected 2019

Posted on 28.01.202008.09.2020 by SME Chamber

Overall business performance during 2019 was mostly in line with expectations, reflecting an economy that was projected to slow down slightly. On the other hand, factors that left their mark on 2019, and which were not foreseen were clearly the political, and resultant economic instability and lower profitability. These two factors, in fact, also rank high in terms of concerns businesses cited for 2020, together with labour shortages. These figures emerge from an online survey conducted by the Malta Chamber of SMEs.

Whilst political instability was at its high mainly during the final months of 2019, unfortunately, it also coincided with the most important business period for the majority of enterprises. This phenomenon adversely affected client spending with Christmas shopping starting later than usual (closer to the 24th December rather than the previous week) while Black Friday scored below expectations for more than half of the respondents. Even though this trend was observed across all of Malta, Valletta operating outlets suffered the most. Electricity outages during this same period were also cited as another contributor of these disappointing results.

The respondents cited owner led initiatives such as new investments and marketing, increased consumption and staff training as some of the main drivers were positive performance was experienced.

The political situation, lower profitability, unfair competition, increased local competition, traffic congestion and parking featured high as contributors to negative performance.

60% of enterprises running January sales or discounts stated that business performance was in line with expectations. The rest of the respondents, excluding 4% that claimed that performance exceeded their expectations, stated that business started slower than expected in 2020.

The majority of businesses do however have a balanced to positive outlook for 2020. 75% feel that in 2020 they expect that business performance will be the same as in 2019 and some even expect it to improve. The remainder fear that business performance will worsen. This feeling of confidence can most likely be attributed to positive political developments witnessed from the second half of January.

Methodology:

The Malta Chamber of SMEs’ Business Performance Survey was conducted between the 9th and the 24th of January and gathered over 300 business responses. Participating enterprises came from a wide variety of sectors across Malta and Gozo. 69% of respondents qualify as micro enterprises, 22% as small and 9% employ over 50 employees.

Malta Chamber of SMEs launches a new image for 2020

Posted on 28.01.202008.09.2020 by SME Chamber

“GRTU REBRANDS, MARKING A MILESTONE IN ITS 70 YEAR HISTORY”

The Malta Chamber of SMEs is today unveiling its new name and visual identity. We are positioning the organisation to reflect the modern and contemporary SME representative body it truly is today. Changing its name from the renowned ‘GRTU’ was a necessary step for the organisation to visibly reflect who it represents and how it evolved beyond just retailers and traders to all of Malta’s economic sectors, being micro, small and medium enterprises.

The SME Chamber is the longest standing business representative and has today grown to become the largest by representing SMEs from all economic sectors operating in Malta. Our services have increased and diversified to cater for the needs of our members and the changing times.

Our new name reflects our wider representation and thanks to EU funding this is being complemented by fresh branding and an outreach strategy that will help spread information about the effectiveness and value of social dialogue.

The President of the Malta Chamber of SMEs, Mr Paul Abela, said that the organisation has been always very vociferous and always spoke freely in the interest of Maltese businesses and the national interest. ‘We have done this irrespective of who is in government because our interest is solely the national interest and as a result that of our members’.

A study undertaken recently with the general public has confirmed how the majority of respondents feel that the organization speaks for the national interest, showing wide appreciation for the important role the organization plays in today’s social, economic and political scenario.

Malta Chamber of SMEs CEO, Abigail Mamo, stated that Malta’s business demographic in terms of diversity of sectors operating in Malta has evolved greatly over the years. The service industry has grown exponentially and many new refined and value adding sectors have entered our economy in recent years and this is reflected in our membership base. ‘With these new sectors joining us we have also developed new services to cater for their needs. Our brand reflects the enterprises we represent and how our own organisation has grown along the years. With our new brand and further service development we are ready to take on the opportunities and challenges facing our members in 2020 and the years to come’.

Malta Chamber of SMEs congratulates Stefano Mallia on being elected President of the Employers’ Group

Posted on 24.01.202009.09.2020 by SME Chamber

Malta Chamber of SMEs congratulates Stefano Mallia on being elected President of the Employers’ GroupHeartfelt congratulations to Stefano Mallia on his well deserved appointment.

Mr Mallia has been active in the EESC, representing Maltese employers, for the last 9 years. During this entire time, he has worked close to us as an organisation and has truly succeeding in delivering Europe to Malta and giving Maltese employers a voice in this important forum.

The European Economic and Social Committee is a very important institution being the voice of organised civil society in Europe. It is a reflection of what MCESD is in Malta. It is therefore instrumental and essential to our function as social partners.

As an SME Chamber we have also supported his candidacy and we express our pride on behalf of Maltese SMEs in having a Maltese national and a business person occupy this important position.

We are certain that more positive things will come to Malta and Maltese Businesses with Stefano Mallia’s appointment.

SME Week Conference 2019

Posted on 01.11.201908.09.2020 by SME Chamber

Absolute majority of enterprises concerned about the banking situation in Malta

GRTU Malta Chambers of SMEs today organised it’s annual SME Conference. This years conference focused on the Banking and financial issues and GRTU Malta Chamber of SMEs published it’s survey results. During this years’conference over 200 enterprises attended this event.

The conference was supported by Business 1st and MEIB as part of the month-long itinerary of SME Week.

74% of the enterprises replied that they find it difficult to get funds from banks. Up by 25% over the results of a similar survey that asked the same question in 2011.

The survey results show that businesses need more competition in the banking sector and that from a business perspective, the situation in the banking sector has never been worse. The survey results where published by GRTU Vice President Marcel Mizzi.

The conference was addressed by the Minister for Economy, Investment and small businesses. Hon. Chris Cardona, thanked GRTU for never shying away from challenges faced but also working towards finding a solution for these challenges. He insisted that “we are facing new challenges of new economic times, and there are no easy solutions. Offering support and resolutions for these dynamic challenges is what guarantees our businesses future success.”
The Minister referenced the tight labour market and changing banking policy as two of the new challenges businesses are today facing, as the country has entered a new economic era.

New challenges to businesses nowadays highlighted in the conference, also include their incorporation and adjustment to rapid technological changes, including data management,information security and incorporating a blockchain infrastructure.

Malta Enterprise CEO Kurt Farrugia also addressed the conference and announced that local businesses will benefit from a partnership signed between Malta Enterprise and T-Systems, a Deutsche Telekom subsidiary, whereby together they will be offering blockchain as a service for companies setting up their blockchain project in Malta.

GRTU Malta Chamber of SMEs President Paul Abela said that, while Malta is going through a very particulat time, we are facing challenges that come from having too much success. Paul Abela said that a lot of hard work went into getting Malta to whre it is today, and this hard work was not only done by our policy makers, but a lot of it was at the hand of enterprise owners.