GRTU wins first prize at the National Enterprise Support Award
GRTU Malta Chamber of SMEs has been awarded first prize with its initiative entitled Enabling the digital transformation of Maltese SMEs within the category of supporting the internationalisation of businesses.
Within this initiative GRTU has undertaken many activities for Maltese businesses to increase their online presence and help Malta reap more from being part of the single market. Among the initiatives undertaken are financial incentives to help small businesses go online, publication of a guidebook, development of an online learning tool and a themed conference.
GRTU has been working hard to help Maltese businesses take the next steps when it comes to their online presence. Statistical research showed that after only a few years of EU membership, internet penetration for Maltese households was increasing drastically and Maltese consumers buying online increased from 26% in 2007 to 51% in 2010. Unfortunately, most of the money of Maltese consumers was being spent abroad without Malta attracting anywhere close to the same numbers.
A challenge that is still on the horizon and that GRTU will be tackling, is the high delivery costs of online purchases. This unfortunately is much more expensive when compared to the majority of other EU countries.
Unless this issue is mitigated Malta’s eCommerce success will remain at bay when trying to compete with much larger countries that benefit from economies of scale and other non-EU countries where government is free to subsidise delivery costs to attract online shoppers.
GRTU’s initiative is now also being nominated to compete in the European Enterprise Support Award that will be held in Austria later on this year.
GRTU’s joint initiative with government, Business 1st Ltd, also won first in its category of Improving the Business Environment.