Cap. 325 Art. 2Interpretation.

(1) In this Act, unless the context or subject otherwise requires -

"body of persons" means any partnership, fellowship or society of persons, whether vested with legal personality or not;

"certified public accountant and auditor" means an individual who holds a warrant to act in this capacity issued under the Accountancy Profession Act, or a partnership of such individuals duly registered under the said Act;

"company" means:

(a) any partnership constituted under the Commercial

* Partnerships Ordinance or the Companies Act, being a partnership or a en nom collectif, en commandite limited liability company;

(b) any body of persons constituted, incorporated or registered outside Malta, and of a nature similar to the aforesaid partnerships;

(c) any co-operative society duly registered as such under the appropriate law for the time being in force in Malta; "Corporation" means the Malta Development Corporation established under the Malta Development Corporation Act, and where any other authority or person is designated by regulations prescribed by the Minister to be the competent authority to exercise any of the functions of the Corporation under this Act, includes any such other authority or person to the exclusion of the Corporation;

"enterprise" means any individual or body of persons who or which carries on or exercises a trade, business, profession or vocation;

"export sales" means:

(a) the value of goods exported by a qualifying company calculated free on board; or

(b) the invoiced value of goods or services sold or rendered, as the case may be, by a qualifying company to another qualifying company under a written contract which clearly stipulates that the said goods or services are to be exported by the latter company whether as so sold, or as subjected to further processing or incorporation in other goods or services, and provided such export has actually taken place: Provided that the said contract shall also stipulate that an officer duly authorised to sign on behalf of the

*Repealed by Act XXV of 1995 (Cap. 386). buying company shall furnish the supplying company with a written declaration confirming that the said goods or services had been exported together with an undertaking that the Corporation may examine the relative export documents and the grant of any benefit on the basis of the provisions of this paragraph shall be conditional upon the production by the beneficiary of such declaration and undertaking together with a statement by the auditors of the buying company that confirms that the declaration of the said official is substantially correct; or

(c) the value of services rendered or performed by a qualifying company which are exported by the same company and in the case of a company qualifying in terms of article 3(1)(e) the value of services rendered or performed for another qualifying company which satisfies the provisions of article 4(1)(b);

"hotel" means a hotel licensed as such under the Malta Travel and Tourism Services Act, or a building in the course of construction which is intended to be so licensed upon completion; "income tax" means tax charged or chargeable under the provisions of the Income Tax Act; "Maltese company" means a company in which Maltese citizens, directly or indirectly, either -

(a) hold more than half in nominal value of its issued share capital, excluding any part thereof which, neither as respects dividends nor as respects capital, carries any right to participate beyond a specified amount in a distribution; or

(b) are entitled to more than half its voting power; "Minister" means the Minister responsible for the Malta Enterprise and includes, to the extent of the authority given, any person authorised in that behalf for any purpose of the Act;

"person" includes a body of persons; "prescribed" means prescribed by regulations under this Act; "public officer" has the same meaning as is assigned to it by article 124 of the Constitution of Malta; "qualifying company" means a company which carries on, or intends to carry on in Malta, a trade or business consisting solely of any of the activities referred to in article 3(1)(a) to (l); "research and development programme" means a programme for systematic investigation or research carried out in any field of science or technology through experiment or analysis, and includes:

(a) basic research comprising activities undertaken for the advancement of scientific or technological knowledge;

(b) applied research where a final specific application is in view;

(c) development involving the use of the results of basic or applied research as aforesaid for the purpose of creating new or of improving existing material, devices, products or processes, but excludes routine or periodic design, testing and analysis of equipment or products for the purposes of quality or quantity control, and routine or periodic alterations to existing products or processes; "sales revenue derived from export" means "export sales";

''State Aid Monitoring Board'' means the State Aid Monitoring Board constituted under article 57; "Tribunal" means the Administrative Review Tribunal established by article 5 of the Administrative Justice Act;

(2) Enactments referred to in this Act shall include any other enactments replacing the said laws, and where reference in this Act is made to specific provisions of any existing enactment, such reference shall be deemed to comprise also a reference to the corresponding provisions of any enactment replacing the said law.

(3) Words and expressions used in this Act and in other enactments referred to in this Act shall, unless defined in this Act, be construed and have the same meaning in this Act as in the said other enactments.

(4) Wherever in this Act reference is made to incentives and benefits contemplated by this Act, such reference shall be read and construed to include incentives and benefits prescribed under this Act.