GRTU meets the Hon Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi

GRTU Council members yesterday met the Hon Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi and were given the opportunity to explain individually the concerns that affect the groups of enterprise owners they each represent among the 7,439 entrepreneurs registered with GRTU.

GRTU president Paul Abela thanked the Prime Minister for the many opportunities he gives GRTU to express its views and present its proposals and analysis directly to him, and the other members of the cabinet. The GRTU president said that GRTU never fails to grab all opportunities for consultation and GRTU leaders do their utmost to represent enterprise owners to the best of their abilities. GRTU President thanked the Prime Minister and the cabinet of Ministers for approving the nomination of GRTU Director General Vince Farrugia to represent Maltese enterprise owners at the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC). Paul Abela said that he has worked closely with Mr Farrugia over these last 8 yrs and he, like most enterprise owners in Malta, is more than convinced that Vince Farrugia is a superb candidate to represent us all on this important economic social and civil society forum.

Vince Farrugia appealed to the Prime Minister to ensure a better measurement of micro and small business performance within the economy of Malta. He said that the micro and small enterprise sector in Malta represents 99.2% of the total 34,127 firms registered in Malta, 32,671 being micro firms. GRTU is well established as the national organisation that represents micro and small enterprises who together account for 67,394 employees, representing 58.5% of total Maltese employment in enterprises. Micro and small firms are responsible for 47% of the value added of the total economy. Today at EU level, the performance of this sector is measured according to 10 criteria established by the European Small Business Act (SBA), namely: entrepreneurship, internationalisation, environment, skills and innovation, Single market, think small first, responsive administration, public procurement, state aid, and finance. The EU established the formula for the measurement of the impact of these 10 criteria on SME performance and it is time now that Malta follows the same criteria.

"One important area that GRTU would like to see the Government devote more action to resolve is the question of state aid going to SMEs and more particularly to micro and small firms. In Malta only 1% of state finds go to this sector. This figure is considerably below the EU average of 10%" emphasised Vince Farrugia.

Marcel Mizzi, one of the GRTU Vice presidents, gave a Power Point Presentation of the results of the GRTU Business Performance Survey – the state of Small businesses in Malta from January-June 10 as compared to January-June 09. GRTU will be publishing these results on Tuesday.

Click here for the Survey Results

The members of the GRTU Council than raised the issues most relevant to their areas of business.