The Small and Medium Sized Practices Advisory Committee within the Malta Institute of Accountants (MIA SMP Committee) has organised its fifth annual SMP Forum at the Westin Dragonara St Julians on Friday 23rd May supported by Bank of Valletta. Amongst others the forum was addressed by Maria Micallef, President MIA and William Spiteri Bailey, Chairman, MIA SMP Committee.
Maria Micallef, MIA President emphasised the importance of small and medium practitioners for Maltese SMEs. “SMEs are a very important factor of growth in the European economy. Their preferred source of business advice is often professional accountants, many of them working in Small and Medium-sized Practices. The Malta Institute of Accountants is pleased to note the support that is being given by Maltese banks to local SMEs. By supporting local small enterprises in their capital needs, financial institutions create an economic environment that enables these firms to grow and prosper. I would like to thank Bank of Valletta for supporting this important MIA event.”
Mark Scicluna Bartoli, Head of EU Business Development at Bank of Valletta highlighted that “Bank of Valletta is continuously developing new EU financial instruments which allow the Bank to provide advantageous financing terms and conditions to small and medium sized enterprises. These EU financial instruments include the Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium Enterprises (JEREMIE) Initiative and the BOV Start Plus which was recently launched in January of this year. These efforts, together with the Bank’s continuous drive to provide a first class service to its customers, has been recently acknowledged on an international level by Global Finance when Bank of Valletta has been named the Best Bank in Malta for 2014.”
Various speakers drawing on the expertise from their respective entity addressed different themes, ranging from Company Liquidations, Audit Reporting, IT and HR matters, Prevention of Money Laundering and EU Financial instruments. The forum created the opportunity for those attending to understand a range of topics which are of interest to Small and Medium Sized enterprises (SMEs).