The government and the Malta Business Bureau agree to strive further to increase the accessibility for European funds.
This was said by Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi, as he was presented with the report ‘Improving the access to EU funds by private enterprise’, which was prepared by the Malta Business Bureau.
The report includes a survey conducted amongst various enterprises that have given their opinion regarding the process of application for European funds and the level of success obtained from these funds, amongst others.
The survey confirmed that the communication between the companies and the managerial authorities for European funds was very effective.
The majority of European funds that enterprises have benefitted from are indirect funds administered by the Maltese government. The beneficiaries are satisfied with the award of these funds, as they hope to apply for more European funds. The report in relation to direct funding, for which private enterprises have to apply for directly with the European Commission, indicates that there is a positive long-term economic impact as a result of these European funds.
Parliamentary Secretary Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi held that, “Together with these enterprises, thousands of employees and their families have benefitted from European funds”. From the presented report, it resulted that more than 1,900 jobs and 1,400 enterprises have benefitted from the European funded programme of the past seven years.
Mr De Cesare stated, “The MBB undertook this study with multiple purposes in mind; firstly to bring to light issues so many companies face when trying to access EU funds; secondly to recommend ways to overcome those issues; and thirdly to kick-start a dialogue directly with businesses on this subject to demonstrate that EU funds may meet their financing needs under certain conditions.”
Mr De Cesare explained, “Our research shows that many of the companies which attempt to apply for funds succeed. EU funds have so much potential as a source of financing for companies, if only we can increase the participation rate.”
The Malta Business Bureau’s report remarked that there is common desire from various enterprises which have never applied for European funds to do so in the future. Hence, the government and the Malta Business Bureau will continue to cooperate so that Malta continues to achieve great results for the use of the European funds allocated to it.
The report also shows the positive impact that European funds have left, having been invested by the government in various sectors, amongst which in infrastructure and research which, even though these were not directly focused on enterprises, still left a positive impact on their productivity.
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Photos – DOI
