Just when the government has come out trumpeting a White Paper and a draft law meant to support and encourage the growth of small businesses, the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises – GRTU has shot down its rhetoric in no uncertain manner. Its director general, Vincent Farrugia, who is not given to mincing words, has been complaining about excessive bureaucracy for quite a long time now. He wants to see concrete action to stamp out such excessive bureaucracy rather than what he calls the government’s nice euro-speak about small and micro firms.
He is quite right, of course. It is useless proposing a raft of measures if there is no determined effort to speed up the work needed to remove obstacles standing in the way of small businesses. Take the micro credit scheme proposed by the Finance Minister last year. It has not been launched yet. Mr Farrugia could therefore hardly be blamed for saying: “The government has belatedly published a Small Business Act that includes all the right principles but is months, if not years, away from serious implementation.”
If the government, and particularly the Finance Minister and the parliamentary secretary responsible for small business and land, mean business, they should take up Mr Farrugia’s challenge and start getting close to what the GRTU would like to see being implemented in the interest of small businesses. Having said that, and to be fair to the government, the very fact it has now come out with a draft legislation does indicate willingness to move forward. And, though the micro credit scheme has not been implemented yet, the government cannot be accused of not doing anything at all in favour of small businesses. As it points out in the White Paper, it has offered a number of schemes through Malta Enterprise aimed at supporting the growth of small enterprises, including those financed through the structural funds. Other measures, such as the Employment and Training Corporation’s “INT” scheme (Ibda n-Negozju Tiegħek – Start your own business), targeting potential entrepreneurs, and subsidising training and re-skilling are also aimed at strengthening SMEs.
A number of new measures are being proposed in the Budget for next year to “facilitate the lives of entrepreneurs”.
The first is what is being called an SME test, which every law having an impact on small businesses must pass. In other words, it will ensure all proposed legislation is adequately vetted to identify potential impact on enterprise. It is also planned to set up a college of regulators to advise the government about the regulatory policies for the sector and an advisory body to assist the government in the formulation and the implementation of policies. It does seem, however, that, taking an overall view of the situation, far too many bodies are being set up.
It is a good idea to centralise online business information to provide a central repository of all information required by businesses on state services and government-imposed requirements. The government has said its support to small businesses had paid off as their number had risen by 51 per cent, to 65,600, between 2001 and 2009. This is certainly not a figure to be sniffed at.
The GRTU is also suggesting the setting up of the post of a commissioner for small businesses, with a rank equivalent to that of a permanent secretary.
Clearly, there is no shortage of proposals. It is time now to get on with the task of putting them into force.