On Friday 08 April, the Gozo Business Chamber in collaboration with Bank of Valletta, Malta Enterprise, and the Ministry for Gozo organised a webinar on ‘Business Incentives for Gozitan Based Enterprises’.
This webinar discussed incentives which are either specific to Gozitan based enterprises or which are more adapt to the nature of Gozitan businesses. The proposed Gozo Regional Development Strategy highlighted that micro enterprises in Gozo accounted for 96% of businesses, as compared to 94% nationally. In fact quoting active business enterprises in 2015, from an ad hoc report carried out by the NSO in 2018, it highlighted that there were 2,107 micro, 65 small, 9 medium and 5 large enterprises in Gozo (2021, p. 7). This means that the nature of the business landscape in Gozo is different to the national one. Consequently the needs are different too.
The same applies to specific sectors such as tourism. Tourism is one of the main pillars of the Gozitan economy. It is estimated to contribute 50% to the regional gross domestic product, and 20% in terms of both direct and indirect employment (Ministry for Tourism, 2015, p. 7). Apart from its importance the tourism product offer is different too. The Regional Statistics Malta 2021 edition highlighted that “as at end of 2020, total registered self-catering accommodation accounted for 78.3 per cent of total bed stock in Gozo and Comino region accounted for 78.3 per cent of total bed stock in Gozo and Comino region. This consisted of 1 252 self-catering accommodation premises, with a net capacity of 6 488 bed-places. Bed stock of other self-catering establishments, comprising of apartments and villas with pool, accounted for more than half of the total active holiday furnished premises” (NSO, 2021, p.189).
The keynote speakers for the event were Anthony David Gatt (Head of External Communications, Malta Enterprise), Ronald Sultana (Director Tourism and Economic Development at the Ministry for Gozo) and Ruth Genovese (Senior Manager Business Development at Bank of Valletta).
The interventions/presentations can be downloaded through the following links:
