TradeMalta to invest close to €1 million in knowledge resources

TradeMalta, the public private partnership formed between the government and the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, has been granted EU funds to develop a knowledge platform for SMEs to use when planning their export and internationalisation efforts. The project, which will see TradeMalta investing in sector and market reports, eLearning content, planning tools and other knowledge assets that SMEs need to find international markets, will cost just under €1 million.

Over the next 24 months, TradeMalta will be procuring various ICT, audio visual, research and other material which will be made available on this knowledge platform. This will ensure that SMEs in Malta will at least be on a par with their counterparts in leading European countries, when it comes to knowledge-based support. The internationalisation knowledge platform is co-financed under the Operational Programme I European Structural and Investment Funds 2014-2020 “Fostering a competitive and sustainable economy to meet our challenges”.

To date TradeMalta has provided assistance to SMEs in terms of the co-financing of export marketing initiatives, training and matchmaking. Through this knowledge platform the agency will now offer engaging and credible content that SMEs will find useful to plan and execute their export and internationalisation. TradeMalta plans to deploy a new staff member to support these information services as part of this project. Tenders for the procurement of key content components are expected to start being published by the end of this year.

The internationalisation knowledge platform is an important milestone for TradeMalta. Malta’s trade promotion agency began operating 16 months ago, taking over the export promotion function from Malta Enterprise. Since its inception, TradeMalta has helped over 200 SMEs exhibit in various trade fairs overseas, has taken 122 firms on trade missions, including six missions to emerging markets, had 20 SMEs on an early-stage exporter programme and 18 SMEs on a programme for existing exporters. Since it started operating, TradeMalta has conducted three surveys on key sectors and has organised information meetings on key markets attended by over 300 people.

TradeMalta believes that there is a demand for knowledge services for exporters and is committed to live up to its promise of being the first port of call for SMEs interested in exporting and internationalising their products and services.