BRUSSELS: The European Union has directed its attention towards fostering an entrepreneurial culture across the region. This is to be done through education, this being considered by the EU as a primary tool to achieve the transformation being aimed for.
In order to embark on this educational initiative, the EU has launched a new platform known as The European Entrepreneurship Education NETwork or EE-Hub. This initiative is being driven by JA Europe, an educational organisation.
In this new consortium, individuals as well as organisations from both public and private sector with a strong background in entrepreneurship education will come together in order to promote this type of education. The aim is to provide a solid national framework of entrepreneurial education in order to foster this mind set among the young generation.
It is deemed to be crucially important for politicians, policy makers and decision makers alike to harbour this type of environment in their countries in order to mobilise business and economic growth.
Taking a look at the business environment in Malta, particularly with regards to business initiatives taken by the younger generation, it can be seen that several young people are choosing the island as their location of choice to set up and develop their business ideas, particularly within the igaming and digital gaming sectors.
Malta is experiencing a year-to-year growth in the number of companies registered and operating from here, particularly within the gaming sector. The latest figures show that around 286 such companies are currently registered in Malta. Being a highly innovative, forward-looking and fast-paced environment, the gaming industry is a good example to gauge Malta’s development in its business environment.
Although Malta is still experiencing a certain degree of struggling when it comes to providing access to funding for start-ups and SMEs, this issue is being addressed and tackled as one of the country-specific recommendations issued by the European Commission earlier this year and adopted by Malta in July as a medium term objective. Malta is already looking into setting up a national investment bank that will administer such funds amongst other schemes.
It will be interesting to observe how Malta will take on board this new European educational initiative, particularly as it takes on its own educational reform and encourages its youth to develop business ideas and launch them in Malta.
