Together Gibraltar’s Kayley Mifsud and Nicky Calamaro had the opportunity to sit down with the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses and discuss how Gibraltar can create a more vibrant business environment.

Since our inception, Together Gibraltar have been arguing that small businesses need to be a bigger part of our local economy and so were very excited to hear firsthand what we can do to help make that happen.

Part of our discussion was focused on tourism and the need to create more unique experiences, given all that Gibraltar has to offer. Gibraltar needs to do more to support entrepreneurs who are creating unique products and experiences which will bring tourists in: getting them to stay longer and spend more. Gibraltar has the opportunity to be a world-class destination which encourages repeat visitors, rather than being a one-time day-trip. To get there, the government needs to be getting the fundamentals right: keeping our entry points pristine, improving signage, and preserving our heritage.

Transparency was another point of concern for small businesses and we agreed with the GFSB that more needs to be done especially around public tenders. We fully support their ideas around introducing minimum timelines on expressions of interest and greater consideration of conflicts of interest.

On public services & e-gov, it sounds like there’s still a long way to go to efficiently support businesses. This process needs to be streamlined so that business owners don’t need to go to multiple government departments each with their own paperwork and fees. We’d be excited to bring some much-needed experience in technology to finally get the e-gov platform where it needs to be. We’d also make sure to give our public services the tools they need to better support businesses and create an efficient environment that encourages growth and investment.

Finally, we discussed how we can keep collaborating with helping small businesses get set up. For our part, Together Gibraltar is still committed to introducing an enterprise investment scheme which kickstarts investment in local startups which develop and build products and services and employ people in Gibraltar. With a greater emphasis on vocational training we can further support economic growth and ensure great career opportunities within locally owned businesses.