Inflation, Overpopulation, and bad Governance issues facing SMEs

By Deepa Srivastava --
Friday, 10 May, 2024

During the opening of the EU-Startups Summit in Valletta, a summit held for the first time in the country, Prime Minister Robert Abela spoke about the Government's vision for the country to continue working towards more sustainable economic growth. He said that this is being done by the Government supporting the local startup ecosystem so that the country's economic growth is driven by innovation and quality.

However, the Malta Chamber of SMEs pointed out that EU legislation is missing the mark with Malta which furthermore impacted the economy negatively.The data emerged in the latest SME barometer during the EU Startup Summit in Malta, a survey representing 400 anonymous participants cited rampant inflation, overpopulation and a lack of good governance as the major issues that the country is facing right now which the government needs to address.

The survey said that the two most important issues that SMEs are currently facing are employee shortage and inflation, with 43% and 28% of respondents respectively highlighting these points.The Chamber said that governance issues are the “order of the day” and noted that the survey would have given more negative findings had it been done in the last two weeks because corruption does affect SMEs too. It elaborated that the economy doesn’t exist in “a vacuum” and does face ripples, and recommended that the government must increase economic trust.

It explained that the reason behind this is because the reputation of countries attracts investors, more so with the stability of reputation, meaning that the high government should serve as an example for SMEs. The Chamber went on to recommend a reform of the Maltese procurement system so that it is more transparent and put Maltese interests as the first priority. It added that “if you do things straightforward, you won’t have any problems.”

Elaborating on the ‘stocktake’, the Chamber said that the country has seen a period of “toxic developments” and a stock take would mean to evaluate already-existing buildings. The Chamber said that sustainability isn’t only environmental or financial but also economic and the fact that so much has been invested in it without a pay-off is a “cry for help.”

The survey also found that 73% of SMEs do not feel represented in the EU. The Chamber explained that this was not surprising as it is in the public domain that the results of the EU are not satisfactory, with one of the reasons for this being that EU legislation doesn’t cater to Malta’s small size but rather adopts a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Inflation, Overpopulation, and bad Governance issues facing SMEs. During the opening of the EU-Startups Summit in Valletta, a summit held for the first time in the country, Prime Minister Robert Abela spoke about the Government's vision for the country to continue working towards more sustainable economic growth. He said that this is being done by the Government supporting the local startup ecosystem so that the country's economic growth is driven by innovation and quality.

However, the Malta Chamber of SMEs pointed out that EU legislation is missing the mark with Malta which furthermore impacted the economy negatively.The data emerged in the latest SME barometer during the EU Startup Summit in Malta, a survey representing 400 anonymous participants cited rampant inflation, overpopulation and a lack of good governance as the major issues that the country is facing right now which the government needs to address.

The survey said that the two most important issues that SMEs are currently facing are employee shortage and inflation, with 43% and 28% of respondents respectively highlighting these points.The Chamber said that governance issues are the “order of the day” and noted that the survey would have given more negative findings had it been done in the last two weeks because corruption does affect SMEs too. It elaborated that the economy doesn’t exist in “a vacuum” and does face ripples, and recommended that the government must increase economic trust.

It explained that the reason behind this is because the reputation of countries attracts investors, more so with the stability of reputation, meaning that the high government should serve as an example for SMEs. The Chamber went on to recommend a reform of the Maltese procurement system so that it is more transparent and put Maltese interests as the first priority.  It added that “if you do things straightforward, you won’t have any problems.”

Elaborating on the ‘stocktake’, the Chamber said that the country has seen a period of “toxic developments” and a stock take would mean to evaluate already-existing buildings. The Chamber said that sustainability isn’t only environmental or financial but also economic and the fact that so much has been invested in it without a pay-off is a “cry for help.”

The survey also found that 73% of SMEs do not feel represented in the EU. The Chamber explained that this was not surprising as it is in the public domain that the results of the EU are not satisfactory, with one of the reasons for this being that EU legislation doesn’t cater to Malta’s small size but rather adopts a ‘one size fits all’ approach.