7 - 13 December 2000

Positive response to Business Promotion Act

by David Kelleher

The Business Promotion Act is expected to be discussed in Parliament in January, Prof. Josef Bonnici, minister for Economic Services told The Malta Business Weekly yesterday.
“Due to the extensive amount of work pending in Parliament, I expect the draft bill to be discussed after the Christmas recess,” Prof. Bonnici said. Asked whether he had received any feedback, he said that feedback had been very positive and both the constituted bodies and the MCED had expressed favourable comments on the Act.
“The response has been very positive. Both the Federation of Industry and the Chamber of Commerce put forward a number of suggestions and these have been taken on board,” the minister said yesterday.
Minister Bonnici said that after the new legislation is passed in Parliament, a Legal Notice – which covers most of the areas that need to be discussed – will be issued.
Asked when he expected the bill to pass, Prof. Bonnici said he was hoping that there would be consensus, “but we have to wait and see”.
The Business Promotion act is an extensive revision of the Industrial Development Act of 1998. The IDA provides for a package of incentives to encourage new and expand investment in Malta.
Such incentives, however, were geared towards enterprises producing for export.