The pandemic brought about an unprecedented degree of financial strain across industries and economies throughout the globe. To further exacerbate these economic difficulties, worldwide economies were challenged by supply chain disruptions coupled with extremely elevated energy prices. It was against this backdrop that we took bold and timely decisions - all of which aimed at protecting and supporting our employees, their employers and all our economic operators.
This made it possible for us to ensure, not just the survival of our economic and social fabric but a swift and robust recovery. During the pandemic we managed to create nothing short of 14,000 new employment opportunities and we achieved the highest employment participation rate ever registered. Today we have fewer individuals looking for a job than we had back in 2019 and a historically low unemployment rate. In 2022 Malta is expected to generate the strongest economic growth across the entire European Union supported by the lowest level of inflation amongst Eurozone peers.
Our unwavering commitment was to protect lives and livelihoods. This is why we made sure that the Wage Supplement scheme would be directly pegged with the objective of maintaining employees on their employer's payroll. This was crucial to ensure the protection of human capital and the ability of our companies to maintain operations as demand resumed. The €700 million invested in wage support alone was indispensable to safeguard over 105,000 jobs across Malta and Gozo. This represents almost 60 per cent of all full-time employees in our private sector and supported the human resource of more than 17,500 companies across different industries.
In summer last year we started a tapering process reflecting a restart of economic activity for most of our sectors. We have been sensitive however, of the fact that those who have been hardest hit by the pandemic, particularly tourism-related sectors which were also adversely impacted by the Omicron spread, still need wage support assistance. This is why the scheme is still ongoing and supporting to the full those companies whose revenues were hardest hit by the pandemic.
Beyond direct payroll support, through another injection of €9 million we are still supporting our companies in financing quarantine leave for their employees. Beyond that, we have invested heavily so as to cover the direct operating costs of our businesses during their downtime. In this context, we have invested €20 million in two rounds of payments that covered the electricity and rental costs of our businesses. This ensured that Maltese enterprises would not bear the operating costs of their businesses on their own whilst the economic activity was still evidently hampered by the pandemic.
We also wanted to ensure that our companies would receive more than just assistance aimed at surviving the pandemic. We helped our business as the invested in their own future, in becoming more agile and embrace the twin transition towards a smarter and greener business models.
To this end, we launched a €20 million incentive programme made up of a number of new and improved schemes - all of which designed together with key stakeholders - aimed at regenerating our companies. The "Change to Grow" and the "Restart" schemes were launched to assist out companies to literally change and improve the way they operate to ensure that they can better compete and grow in a post-pandemic commercial environment. These schemes cover professional consultancy costs together with associated implementation expenses.
We have also allocated €5 million for the launch of the Smart and Sustainability incentive. A scheme which blends cash grants to tax credits that support investments made by Maltese and Gozitan companies as the digitize and green-up their business models.
The pandemic did not divert our attention from the importance of attracting new investments to our country - the key objective at Malta Enterprise. Indeed during this time Malta Enterprise approved nothing short of 113 new project and 24 new start-up initiatives. We launched projects in the advanced manufacturing space together with companies which have been investing in our economy for decades.
We have created Malta's first ESG portal with the support and commitment of more than 17 companies making up more than 80% of the value of all companies listed on Malta Stock Exchange. An initiative which represents another step in our ambition towards enabling sustainable enterprises and the unlocking of private capital towards green and sustainable corporate entities.
During these months we have also enacted the Social Enterprise Act which will be critical for the growth and development of Maltese social companies and other profit-with-purpose initiatives. An industry which employs almost 4,400 employees and generated more than €70 million annually.
Beyond supporting our private enterprises in the transition towards a sustainable economy, during these months we delivered key projects that enhance the wider ecosystem for a decarbonized economy. Central to all this is the investment in public charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. Indeed, today we have more than 330 charging points across the island and the usage of public charging points has increased exponentially with more than 450 charges on a weekly basis.
The energy and water agency distributed nothing short of 147,000 water saving kits in Maltese and Gozitan households - an initiative which drastically reduces excess water consumption. We invested another €5 million in the rehabilitation of Chadwick Lakes and invested in greener open spaces in different areas which were so important for the recreation of our families during the pandemic.
We have invested €90 million in the distribution network of Enemalta which will ensure a better quality of service and higher reliability during peak consumption periods. This, together with another €70 million project by Enemed in Ħas Saptan's fuel depot represent a direct investment in the people's quality of life. The latter project led to the decommissioning of the legacy of the 31st March depot. This resulted in the elimination of no less than 44 fuel bowser trips on a daily basis from the core of the Birzebbuga community once and for all.
