Edwin Vassallo, Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and the Self Employed, yesterday visited shops in Paola to launch a consultation process for the introduction of new procedures in the issue of trading licences. He was accompanied by Vince Farrugia, GRTU director general.
“The aim of this process is that after recent amendments to the regulations of trade licences, whereby the procedure was simplified and bureaucracy reduced, the government believes that the time is ripe to improve the quality of the services provided to persons in business. In this way we will also be improving the value added of the commercial sector. For this reason, the government is proposing that licences will start to be issued according to qualification criteria. This means that persons starting a new business should ensure that they employ persons competent in the respective commercial sector.”
Mr Vassallo said that by this process the government would be ensuring that all those who wanted to start a new business would be free to do so, however, as in the case of pharmacies, where the owners were obliged to employ a pharmacist, business owners would be urged to employ persons who were familiar with the particular line of business.
“We want to ensure that business owners are equipped with the necessary skills to have a successful business. With the introduction of qualification criteria we do not want to stop people from opening a business, but we want to make sure that the decision to open a business is made after due deliberation, and that the persons involved have the basic skills necessary to operate a business,” he said.
“Thanks to the public consultation being launched together with the GRTU, the government would like to receive the opinions and ideas of persons in business and will also be welcoming suggestions from persons who are considering the option to start a business. The law that regulates the issue of trade licences at present already takes into consideration this possibility, and by the end of November we would like to have concluded the first phase of the public consultation process, so that together with the GRTU we will be able to conclude and present our proposals.
“The idea is to initially open this new process to certain sectors, which have yet to be chosen, and start regulating the opening of businesses in this sector from a period in 2008. The government will not be introducing any new bureaucratic procedures and will not be making any major changes, but we would like to ensure that all those starting a new business are prepared and capable of carrying out their commercial activity.
Mr Vassallo also announced a schedule of meetings which will be held in different localities and which will be starting next week. Every year the Parliamentary Secretariat organises meetings at different local councils, so that self-employed persons and small business owners would have the opportunity to meet with him and put suggestions, comments or complaints they may have about the commercial sector.