The business community always expects more from a Nationalist government as it is the only committed to their interests, Parliamentary Secretary for the Self Employed Edwin Vassallo said yesterday.

Speaking during the launch of a report called ‘Government is close to the Self Employed’, Mr Vassallo explained that his secretariat went on a blitz of meetings with all sectors of the small to medium commercial community and the feedback was included in the aforementioned report.

"This government is in constant contact with the self employed at every level and the country has now arrived at a position where commercial activity has increased at such a rate that we require more consumers to service demand. We still lack the entrepreneurial mentality and we need to develop more on the research and innovation lines".

GRTU Secretary General Vince Farrugia said that the Chamber supports the secretariat’s initiative especially in the way this functions in a bottom to top approach. However he said that the regulators who are infiltrated in all sectors of government operation are having their toll on business operators and are obstructing the people.

"The public sector must learn to be accountable and must function along European lines. We cannot continue to have those who are offering public services to be stuck in the past. Those small businesses who are offering services to the community are the real throb behind all business activity and we should make their path easier and not obstruct them".

Mr Farrugia said that two years of EU membership has shown that we are much better off than we used to be but some sectors still need to make that quantum leap of faith if we are to start reaping the fruits of membership.

Responding to questions on the action that is taken by government entities with regard to self employed complaints, Mr Vassallo said that his secretariat acted as a collation point for all problems with these then being passed to the respective ministries and/or departments. He said that the secretariat does its utmost to chase and conclude such complaints in a satisfactory manner but this does not totally depend on him.