Ipse benefits from EU pilot project

The Institute for the Promotion of Small Enterprise will benefit from a Lm163,000 grant from the European Union for a pilot project entitled "Successful small scale manufacturing from small island territories - the Nissos project".

The project, supported by the Leonardo da Vinci Vocational Training Programme and designed to promote an exchange of ideas and practices among small enterprises and support service providers, will run for three years and brings together 11 partners from five participating European countries.

Apart from Malta and Iceland, the other participating territories include islands in Finland, Estonia and Scotland.

The sum is the largest allocated to an EU Leonardo Da Vinci vocational training pilot project promoted by a Maltese partner to date.

Ipse has been entrusted with the coordination of the Nissos Project. The University of Malta and the Foundation for Human Resources are the other two Maltese partners involved in the venture.

The Nissos Project, launched at the Crowne Plaza, in Sliema yesterday, is expected to run parallel with a similar venture that has been piloted by a group of academics from island-based universities in Atlantic Canada. Comparisons are expected to be drawn up from these two projects.

Godfrey Baldacchino, of the Foundation for Human Resources designed and developed the project for Ipse. Apart from acting as the coordinator, Prof. Baldacchino will be directly responsible for the academic component of the venture.

The parliamentary secretary in the finance and economic affairs ministry, Edwin Vassallo, stressed at the launch the duty of business support agencies to give particular attention to small enterprise and to act as catalysts to promote innovative ideas.

Mr Vassallo said the Nissos Project supports the concept that indigenous small businesses in Malta and Gozo have a lot to benefit from an exchange of ideas and experiences with enterprises in other island states.