Ahead of the Budget 2027, council members of the Malta Chamber of SMEs met earlier today with Opposition Leader Dr Alex Borg, together with Dr Adrian Delia, Shadow Minister for Finance, and Dr Darren Carabott, Shadow Minister for Economy, Technology and Strategic Projects, to present the SME Chamber’s Budget proposals.
During the meeting, both sides discussed the current economic situation and exchanged views on the way forward.
Click here to view the SME Chamber Budget 2027 document
The Malta Chamber of SMEs is concerned by comments made by Minister Clyde Caruana, attributing Malta’s productivity challenges primarily to employers choosing cheaper labour over capital investment.
While businesses undoubtedly have a responsibility to invest, innovate and improve efficiency, it is unfair and overly simplistic to place the burden of Malta’s productivity challenge predominantly on employers.
Productivity is also heavily influenced by the environment in which businesses are expected to operate.
As highlighted in the Malta Chamber of SMEs’ Budget Proposals 2027, improving productivity requires more than investment in technology. It also depends on efficient regulation, accessible skills, effective workforce management and public services that support businesses rather than burden them. The proposals specifically identify traffic, skills mismatch, unfair competition and over-regulation as factors contributing to lower productivity.
Every hour spent dealing with duplicated paperwork, unnecessary administrative procedures, regulatory delays or a lack of coordination between public entities is an hour taken away from productive business activity.
Rather than merely pointing towards the problem, the Malta Chamber of SMEs has put forward a comprehensive set of proposals for Budget 2027 aimed specifically at improving productivity. These include a Mandatory SME Test for new laws, regulations and major administrative procedures, a Regulatory Stocktake, implementation of the Once-Only Principle so that businesses are not repeatedly asked for the same information by different public authorities and a Productivity Tech Kit to help micro and small businesses adopt digital tools and more efficient systems.
The SME Chamber has also proposed measures to encourage productive investment and reinvestment, together with policies aimed at fair competition, improved enforcement, energy efficiency, transport and mobility. The overall objective is to create the conditions that allow businesses to invest, innovate and grow sustainably.
The SME Chamber has also proposed the establishment of a cross-party taskforce on Malta’s long-term priorities to identify the country’s main challenges, agree on a common way forward and provide greater continuity on reforms extending beyond a single electoral term. This is the type of mature and coordinated approach that Malta’s productivity challenge requires.
Businesses must play their part, but productivity is a shared national responsibility. If we genuinely want to invest more in technology, automation and capital, we must also remove the regulatory, administrative and infrastructural obstacles that consume productive time and discourage investment.
It is with great sadness that we remember Joe Attard, CEO of Green MT Limited ( Malta Chamber of SMEs subsidiary) and a long-standing figure in Malta’s business community.
May he rest in peace
The Malta Chamber of SMEs is raising serious concerns over the impact of the new EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation specifically on the provisions which became applicable on 12 August 2026.
The new EU packaging rules require businesses placing packaged products on another Member State’s market to comply with that country’s Extended Producer Responsibility requirements, which can include registration, reporting, payment of EPR fees and, in certain cases, appointing an authorised representative.
Particularly for Maltese micro and small businesses trading across the European Single Market, this regulation is disproportionate; going directing against the European Union’s think small first principle adopted under the Small Business Act for Europe in 2008.
The SME Chamber fully supports the environmental objectives behind the Regulation. However, the new cross-border Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) obligations have created disproportionate administrative and financial burdens for small businesses, shipping to other EU countries in small numbers.
For Maltese businesses, this issue is particularly serious. Unlike businesses operating in much larger Member States, Maltese SMEs cannot rely on a large domestic market to grow. Access to the Single Market is therefore essential, not optional.
Requirements linked to registrations, reporting, producer responsibility schemes and, in certain cases appoint authorised representatives in different Member States, translates into significant fixed costs. For a large multinational these costs may be relatively minor. For a Maltese micro-business selling limited quantities across several EU countries, they will make cross-border trade commercially unviable and unsustainable.
SME Chamber President Mr. Paul Abela stated that ‘Environmental responsibility must not come at the cost of pushing Europe’s smallest businesses out of the Single Market.’
The Single Market cannot become 27 separate compliance markets. The Malta Chamber of SMEs is also concerned about the competitive position of Maltese retailers. Local businesses already face higher logistics, transport and operational costs, due to our insularity, while increasingly competing with large international online platforms and non-EU sellers. Local low volume suppliers have already been constrained to suspend all online sales to EU countries due to this legislation, putting at risk their business and livelihood.
The Malta Chamber of SMEs is therefore calling for greater proportionality, including simplified EU-wide registration and reporting, meaningful thresholds for micro and low-volume businesses, and stronger enforcement on non-EU sellers and online platforms. The Malta Chamber of SMEs is concerned that requiring a very small business to establish different EPR compliance arrangements across several European countries could discourage that business from selling cross-border altogether.
In this regard, the SME Chamber is calling the European Commission and the European parliament to;
The Malta Chamber of SMEs’ Deputy President, Mr Philip Fenech, participated on Friday in the national conference L-Istat tan-Nazzjon 2026, held at San Anton Palace.
The conference focused on looking 50 years into Malta’s future, exploring the opportunities, challenges and vision that will shape our country in the decades ahead.
When I took part in the State of the Nation conference at San Anton Palace recently, hosted by the President of Malta, the main conversation was centred on looking 50 years into our future.
But as I argued on that panel, before we try to project half a century ahead, we first need to sit down, take stock of where we are today, and understand the true value of what we have built.
Now that the peak summer season is drawing to a close, it is the right time for a clear reality check.
The boisterous crowds of youths we saw in July and August have largely left, and the predictable wave of seasonal panic has started to cool down with them.
We have to be honest about what happened. The frustration over localised misbehaviour in places like Swieqi was understandable, but perspective was completely lost.
Unruly groups made up a microscopic fraction of the tourists who came to Malta. Yet through social media, the incidents that happened were turned into a national drama.
The right response was never panic, it was firm law enforcement. By bringing in on the spot fines and a visible security presence, where Armed Forces personnel supported police patrols, we sent a firm message that Malta welcomes visitors, but lawlessness will simply not be tolerated.
During the conference, I pointed to the economic reality driving this entire debate.
Our economy has grown from a €7 billion GDP to over €25 billion. That massive expansion created huge business and consumer confidence, which triggered unprecedented private investment.
On one side of the coin, visionary operators have raised our core product to exceptional standards.
Older and outdated tourism properties are constantly being replaced by brand new, higher standard developments.
Historic palazzinos across our traditional villages have been restored into boutique residences, while top tier five-star hotels, Michelin star restaurants, upscale clubs, lounges, retail, and leisure outlets continue to lift our overall profile.
We are celebrating genuine Maltese character right alongside our vibrant modern hubs.
Our traditional charm has not been destroyed, it has actually expanded across new niches and demographics.
The proof of this work is clear.
This past January, our visitor numbers were higher than the absolute peak of August 2012.
Reaching mid-summer volume in the middle of winter is the direct result of strategic, year-round planning that took years to achieve.
However, as I made clear at San Anton, this rapid growth also brought a side effect, which is localised pressure and what I call the copycat syndrome.
While pioneers innovate and raise standards, a secondary wave of investors simply duplicates existing ideas in spaces that are already saturated.
This kind of redundancy adds physical pressure to our localities and fuels complaints about overtourism without adding any real economic value.
We do not need more of the same. Private capital needs to shift toward gap filling, niche quality, and real value addition instead of simple duplication.
We also need to remember where we started. Those who complain about peak periods seem to forget the alternative we lived through in the past, an era of under tourism, empty hotels, seasonal layoffs, and economic stagnation.
Nobody wants to go back to that. What we are going through today are growing pains, not dying pains.
Seasonal pressures require active management, not alarmism.
Peak demand puts a strain on local lifestyles, and that impacts our wellbeing index. Host wellbeing and guest satisfaction go hand in hand.
We felt this friction during peak months when street cleansing struggled to keep up with waste volumes, and during power disruptions caused by replacing legacy cables and installing new substations.
On top of that, because local labour shortages force us to bring in foreign workers to support the service sector, our population footprint expands.
To manage this load over the coming decades, we have to embrace digitalisation and AI across operations to reduce labour dependency, while planning ahead for global shifts like climate change.
Our product is not ruined. It is richer, more diverse, and more competitive than it has ever been.
As I emphasised at San Anton, the way forward is not to pull the emergency brake on an economic engine that brought us to €25 billion, but to steer it through better infrastructure, technology driven efficiency, disciplined investment, firm enforcement, and sensible governance.
The Malta Chamber of SMEs, in collaboration with DIER – the Department of Industrial and Employment Relations, successfully hosted an engaging information session on the recent changes to the Wage Regulation Order.
If you would like to receive a recording of the information session or the presentation, please contact us at .
Malta Chamber of SMEs COO, Andrew Aquilina and Council Member, Mr. Beppe Muscat yesterday participated in the Annual MTCA stakeholders forum.
The Malta Chamber of SMEs actively participates in this forum and looks forward to continue contributing for the benefit of its members.
The Malta Chamber of SMEs, together with Weave Consulting – The ESG Specialists and Gonzi & Associates, Advocates, successfully hosted an engaging workshop on Pay Transparency, featuring valuable insights from Dr Roberta Lepre.and Dr Katrina Portelli.
If you would like to receive the recording of this workshop, please contact us at .
The Malta Chamber of SMEs successfully hosted its annual summer event on 22 July at the beautiful Villa Bighi, bringing together members of the business community for an evening of networking, conversation and collaboration.
Held with the support of Xjenza Malta, GSD and Maserati, the event provided an excellent opportunity for business leaders, entrepreneurs and professionals to connect, exchange ideas and strengthen relationships across Malta’s business community.
The event was attended by Prime Minister Robert Abela and Opposition Leader Alex Borg, alongside several ministers, Members of Parliament and CEOs of various entities. Their presence provided an opportunity for meaningful engagement with SME Chamber members and highlighted the importance of dialogue between the business community and policymakers.
The evening offered a relaxed yet valuable setting for networking, fostering new connections and strengthening existing partnerships.
The Malta Chamber of SMEs extends its gratitude to all collaborators for their support, as well as to all those who attended and contributed to making the event a success.
