Matthew Vella
Malta’s main industry lobbies, the Chamber of Commerce and the Federation of Industry have declared Monday’s budget to have failed in helping businesses cut down on costs, against the impending slowdown from the international economy.
The two bodies yesterday pointed out clear failures in government’s ability to match its political rhetoric with tangible measures for both short-term and long-term challenges.
“Considering that government is embarking on the Vision 2015 to achieve a number of centres of excellence, there was no mention of what existing, as well as new growth sectors the government intends to target. Coupled with this, there is an absence of new access to finance tools, such as micro-credits, proof-of-concept funds and venture financing that go hand-in-hand with such developments, particularly with the noted bio-technology park.”
The organisations did welcome the measure to incentivise participation in trade missions and the identification of markets abroad, although the eligibility criteria narrows possible participation to restricted sectors.
But they expressed disappointment at the complete absence of measures aimed at reducing costs to enterprise.
“It was expected that in the light of the difficult economic climate which enterprise is facing today, government would have introduced a mix of measures which produce results both in the medium and long term, but more importantly in the short term to ensure that manufacturing in particular would be able to mitigate the additional burden they have been made to carry as a result of the new energy tariffs. In terms of the announced schemes for business, it is noted that these could fall short in mitigating the effect of the increases in utility tariffs.”
They said that on the whole, the positive measures earmarked for industry would only achieve fruition in the long term, such as the incentives related to research and innovation.
The Chamber and FOI also welcomed the increase in tourism marketing funds and the €120 million fund capital projects aimed at enhancing the tourist product.
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