An information session on fami­ly businesses was held jointly by the Gozo Ministry Family Business Office and the Gozo Business Chamber.

The event featured presentations by Gozo Business Chamber president Joseph Borg, Regulator of the Family Business Office Joseph Gerada, Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana and Deputy Prime Minister and Health Minister Chris Fearne.

In his address, GBC president Joseph Borg stressed the importance of the Family Business Act that came into force on January 1, 2017. He highlighted how the Chamber always believed that the introduction of this type of legislation would strengthen the structure of Gozitan business entities. In Gozo, more than in Malta, business entities are relatively small and family-owned. He said the Chamber always promoted the incentives related to this legislation, also by organising individual one-to-one meetings with the Family Business Office.

Chris Fearne stressed the importance of small enterprises that were family-owned, and how the government was committed to continue assisting these business entities. Mr Fearne highlighted the importance of family-owned businesses for the national economy, and the need to continue providing them with the required assistance.

This, he said, led to a more sustainable economy. He praised the initiatives taken by the Gozo Ministry towards this end.

Joseph Gerada highlighted how one of the objectives of the European Commission was to create a regulatory framework that facili­tated the transfer of family businesses. He said that 98 per cent of businesses in Malta were small and medium enterprises, the majority of which were family businesses. Dr Gerada announced that through an initiative being undertaken by the Gozo Ministry a branch of the Family Business Office would open at the ministry. Gozitan family businesses would be given support in all aspects of the fami­ly business legislation, he said.

Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana said that besides the opening of the new branch, there were other initiatives in the pipeline, including companies to relocate to Gozo, attracting private companies’ back office work to Gozo and enabling companies to provide teleworking to Gozitan employees.

Dr Caruana remarked how the Gozo Ministry was a one-stop shop for a number of services, where one can also find representatives from Malta Enterprise and Malta Industrial Parks. In the coming weeks an office of the Malta Financial Services Authority would also open in Gozo, Dr Caruana said.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.