The Parliamentary Secretary for the EU Presidency 2017 and EU funds Dr. Ian Borg has today announced the extension of the Jeremie Fund agreement that will translate into an additional €10 million for SMEs.

This initiative will mean that a minimum of 100 enterprises will potentially be able to benefit from loans at beneficial rates. Dr. Borg explained this while addressing a conference coordinated by the Ministry for European Affairs in collaboration with the Planning and Priorities Coordination Division in order to assess the opportunities for SMEs during the next Programming Period 2014-2020.

The Parliamentary Secretary said that while in the early days of the policy investment, economic development was being done mainly through infrastructural investments, some fundamental changes have happened in recent years especially through the reforms being proposed in the next programming period. This is due to the fact that the Regional Policy during the current programming period offers support to SMEs through financial instruments as well.

These financial instruments provide assistance in the form of loans, guarantees and equity investments in order to improve competitiveness, generate growth, job creation and promotion of economic activity in line with the EU 2020 objectives.

The Parliamentary Secretary stated that in order to achieve these set of objectives in the coming years as a country we need the right combination of investment and a ‘better spending’ strategy so as to ensure that the taxpayers’ money goes where needed.

“More than ever before every Euro must be invested wisely at these times of tight fiscal constraints. The emphasis must be on the results not on spending.”

Dr. Borg encouraged those present to transform this conference into a forum for discussion, exchanging of ideas, and suggestions for improvement. He carried on explaining that this government wants every representative to explain his needs and economic reality so as to create a product that will effectively be considered as a tool which will enable the fulfilment of the economic expectations.

“The ultimate aim is to ensure that during the next programming period, the funding opportunities act as a mixture of grants and financial engineering instruments which are more relevant and more open to the Maltese SMEs while being less rigid in nature,” he said.

The Parliamentary Secretary Dr. Ian Borg, Ms. Maria Leander Secretary General of the European Investment Fund and Mr. John Cassar White Chairman of the BOV will be signing the agreement later on today at the Auberge D’Aragon.

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