Minister for Economy, Enterprise, and Strategic Projects Silvio Schembri has introduced several Malta Enterprise schemes focusing on specific sectors in the economy, namely technological innovation, digitalization, and the blue and green economy, among others.
Schembri on Saturday spoke of the robust ecosystem in the country, to continue supporting established businesses, helping startups at every stage, attracting more foreign direct investment, and continuing to explore new economic niches that require less land and provide better-paying careers.
CEO of Malta Enterprise Kurt Farrugia, said that part of Malta Enterprise's work is to anticipate economic trends and identify opportunities for the country.
“Incentives are important tools. The several schemes being introduced are improved versions aligned with the vision to create an economy that generates higher quality jobs, incentivises innovation, and grows and diversifies all businesses operating in Malta and Gozo,” Farrugia said.
The several schemes announced today include: the ‘Invest’ scheme for initial investments; the Business Development Grant (BD Grant); the Skills Development Scheme; R&D schemes including Innovate and Exploring Research, B Start and Startup Finance Schemes for innovative startups; and the Smart and Sustainable Investments Grant for companies reducing their environmental impact.
As Malta’s economic development and investment promotion agency, Malta Enterprise is tasked with incentivising the establishment of enterprises in Malta and expansion of industry.
The Corporation is empowered to do so through the utilisation of support measures which can facilitate the setting up of economically viable businesses and facilitate growth in established enterprises through investment in their capacity and improved efficiencies.
Support measures are developed by Malta Enterprise within State Aid rules, respecting the parameters and limitations of the regulatory frameworks these comprise.
Whilst allowing a defined space for potential support, the schemes cannot lead to market distortions and are assigned to projects where there is an incentive effect.
Schemes are crucial to pro-actively foster investment in key or crucial industries and therefore, have to be relevant to the economic needs of the day, whilst being forward thinking to instigate future growth.
This means that support measures are aligned with Malta’s policies, targets and objectives.
As an entity which has been entrusted with stewardship of public funds, the role is to maximise the return on investment of any support granted.
Malta Enterprise needs to keep to this principle so to support viable businesses which can contribute to economic growth.
There is an alignment with current trends as well, such as a focus on digitisation or automating processes which allows for more investment in value-adding activities.
As a Corporation ME also understand the role in a socially and environmentally responsible society, with a number of measures are positioned to support industry in aligning their operations with ESG and SDG commitments.
In line with ME’s Corporate vision, ME schemes are positioned towards assisting the establishment of new businesses, whether these are greenfield investment by FDI companies, start-ups who choose to kickstart their business in Malta and local entrepreneurs looking to develop a new venture, or local established businesses looking to diversifyinto a new industry.
Malta Enterprise takes into consideration enterprise growth,and a number of our schemes provide an incentive towards this goal, with support for capital investment, boosting talent, or improved efficiencies.
The nine schemes are truly wide-ranging. From the Invest scheme for initial investments, Business development grant, the Skills development scheme, R&D scheme and the associated Innovate, Exploring researchproducts, the B Start and the new Startup Finance schemes and the renewed Smart and sustainable investemnt grant.
More information on the schemes can be found on the website: https://maltaenterprise.com/support