Progett ta’ Tisbiegh fi Triq Santa Rita – Rabat Malta


Matul dawn l-ahhar sena u nofs, il-Kunsill Lokali tar-Rabat
(Malta), hadem bla heda biex iwettaq progett ambizjuz fi Triq Santa Rita u
Misrah San Katald.  Dan il-progett wassal għal diversi laqghat u bosta
diskussjonijiet, ma' entitajiet, awtoritajiet, dipartimenti tal-Gvern u ohrajn
fejn dan  wassal għal diversi għazliet u decizjonijiet li kellhom
jittiehdu.  Dan il-progett ser jibda fil-jiem li gejjin. 

F'diversi laqghat kordjali
li saru bejn Ufficcjali mill-GRTU u s-Sindku tar-Rabat gie diskuss fid-dettal
l-progett ta' tisbiegh fi Triq Santa Rita k/m Triq Emmanuele Vitale. Ix-xoghol
fuq dan l-progett ser jibda f'Settembru u fost affarijiet ohra ser jikkonsisti
f'tisbiegh ta' bankini, toroq u parkegg. 
L-iskeda tax-xogħol  ser
isir fi stadji bi Triq Santa Rita
tibqa' aċċessibbli għat-traffiku f'kull hin. Il-proġett ser jibda minn fejn
l-għassa tal-pulizija u jispiċċa fi Triq Santa Rita k/m Triq Emmanuele
Vitale. 

Il-GRTU insistiet li matul
l-process tax-xogholijiet s-sidien
tal-ħwienet jibqgħu jahdmu u moqdija kif prezentament qeghdin u jrid
jitħalla aċċess ghas-servizzi mehtiega minnhom.  Jitpoġġew platforms
sabiex
il-konsumaturi jkollhom aċċess għall-ħwienet minghajr ma jkunu
f'periklu.  L-iskop huwa li kemm jista' jkun
tiġi mnaqqsa l-inkonvenjenza.  Il-GRTU talbet sabiex jsiru
l-arranġamenti neċessarji ma'  l-entitajiet kollha
involuti sabiex ix-xoghol isir bi pjan ghaqli u efficcjenti.

Il-Kunsill nforma li sakemm qieghed isir l-progett l-bejjiegħa tal-monti ser jaghtu is-servizzi taghhom min tal-Plieri bit-tilar
flimkien mal-vann jew trakk tagħhom.  Il-Kunsill Lokali tar-Rabat ser
jiprovdi servizz ta transport, minn misraħ il-parrocca għal tal-Plieri sabiex
jaqdi lir-residenti u jghin lill-bejjiegħa. 

Nifhmu li kulhadd irid jaghti s-sehem tieghu.  Dan
il-progett irid ikun lest fl-ewwel xhur tas-sena d-dieħla minghajr ma jkun ta
wisq inkonvenjent.   Il-GRTU flimkien mall-Kunsill Lokali tar-Rabat
ser ikomplu jaħdmu bi sħiħ fuq progetti simili, bil-għan li tkompli titjieb
il-ħajja tar-residenti, l-komunita kummercjali u tkompli tinghata spinta
lis-settur turistiku fil-Lokal.

Il-GRTU tiehu l-opportunita' sabiex tirringrazzja lis-Sindku
u lill-Kunsill Lokali tar-Rabat tal-laqghat kordjali li saru mall-GRTU flimkien
mall-membri taghha sabiex dan il-progett jkun jista jsir.

The GRTU Arms Dealers Section (ADS)

The newly set
up GRTU Arms Dealers Section (ADS) is thriving to upgrade the regulatory
framework regarding dealers of weapons and ammunition in Malta, as well as
harmonizing the 91/477/EEC (Arms Directive) which is still in direct conflict
with Maltese Law in various aspects.

Following
talks held with the Commissioner of Police, the ADS has made substantial
proposals to the Commissioner of Police, who is responsible for the Ballistics
Office, as well as to the Weapons Board, which is chaired by Brigadier Maurice
Calleja.

One of
the main bones of contention relates to Legal Notices 75 and 76 of 2013, which
came into force on the 26th February 2013 after several months of discussions
with the outgoing Weapons Board. The changes introduced by these Regulations
were greatly welcomed by the entire community of shooters, collectors, range
operators and dealers.

Nonetheless the
ADS has been informed that L.N. 75 of 2013 is to be repealed, and replaced with
an all new set of regulations. The ADS strongly believes that this Legal Notice
contains provisions that are vital to all stakeholders and any changes could
very well compromise the important progress that has been made. It is yet
unclear what changes the Commissioner of Police would like to make.

The ADS
has however welcomed the Commissioner of Police's commitment to overhaulthe
current Import License system that is archaic and obsolete when compared to
other EU countries. Nevertheless the Commissioner insists that he wants to
introduce a capping quantity for dealer's sales over the previous year. The ADS
opposes this unwarranted controlling procedure.

The use
of Import and export licenses for intra-EU trade goes against EU regulations.
These instead establish the EU transfer form ("prior consent form") as the only
document to be used for intra-EU trade. Article 11(3) of 91/477/EEC (Arms
Directive) stipulates that Member States may issue an authorization valid for
three years that covers the transfer of firearms from/to all 28 Member States.
Quantities, values and serial numbers need not be stated. Imports from Third
Countries would remain subject to a Trade Import License that is issued by the
Director of Trade Services after Police approval. In this case too dealers
oppose the introduction of quotas.  The
ADS opines that any applications with abnormally large quantities should be
dealt with directly with the applicant rather than with blanket limitations on
all dealers.

Currently
all exports irrespective of whether to EU Member States or otherwise are
subject to Police and Malta Foreign Affairs approval prior to the issue of an
Export Authorization by the Director of Trade Services. In the case of intra-EU
trade this is again in breach of the EU Directive: only an EU transfer form
should be used in such cases.

With
regards to exports to third countries, it is the Director of Trade Services
that must issue the export authorization after receiving Police and MFA
clearance. This is what is being done at present. This procedure is generally
applied to exports to approved Private Maritime Security Companies (PMSCs) for
anti-piracy operations and is in full conformity with our international
obligations.

All this
uncertainty is substantially prejudicing Maltese Arms Dealers' business. These
entrepreneurs have sought to adhere to their very tough legal framework and
have even succeeded in attracting business to the island. Continued delays
however are undermining our country's credibility with serious clients.

The GRTU
endorses Government's initiatives aimed at building upon and improving existing
legislation while cutting down on red tape, however any measures need to be
made for a better future and only after serious consultation with the GRTU's
ADS.

EU competitiveness report on Malta leaves us feeling uneasy


On the 25th of September the European
Commission published the 2013 Edition of the report called Member States'
Competitiveness Performance and Implementation of EU Industrial Policy –
Industrial Performance Scoreboard. The purpose of this annual report is to
review and compare the industrial performance and policies of the EU as a whole
and of individual Member States. This report therefore gives a fairly detailed
account of how each Member State is fairing in its approach to the private
sector.                                                               

The foreword to this report by
Commission Vice-President Tajani states ‘Growth and employment can only be
achieved through competitive enterprises. The task of policy-makers is to
create an environment where entrepreneurs can fulfil their ambitions and
contribute to a sustainable and balanced growth of our economies.'

The report outlines how badly
Malta is fairing in this. The report is indeed very stark and outlines sharply
how poor the environment of doing business in Malta is. This leads us to think,
have the initiatives that looked so good on paper such as the Business First
and reducing administrative burdens really worked as successfully as policy
makers say? On the other hand GRTU is skeptical to rely 100% on the results of
this report as we believe that the comparable data available might not have
been the best to represent what is really going on in Malta. This however sheds
light on another problem. The authorities need to give importance to the way
their efforts are measured and ranked as the results we end up with are truly
unnerving. We do however feel that to a large extend the findings of the report
represent the sentiment of GRTU and its members. We do feel that Malta is not
attractive to do business and that local SMEs have a hard time dealing with the
bureaucracy and the high operation costs in Malta.

The report placed Malta in the
‘Moderate Cluster' of EU states, where Malta was grouped with Cyprus, Greece,
Italy, Portugal and Slovenia.  This
group, according to the report, "performs well in some competitiveness areas
but face difficulties and deterioration in others". It also outlines that
‘productivity growth has lagged behind the euro-area average over the past
decade and has been notably weaker than in the other ‘new' Member States. These
are very negative results for Malta but let's go into a bit more into detail
into the negative and the lesser frequent positives:

Malta has
already exceeded its Europe 2020 targets on research and development, however
here one should point out that Malta's target was set very low , one can even
call it unambitious. Malta however also lags behind in R&D performed by
businesses. In terms of innovation, Malta was placed in the six-worst position and
had fared better than only Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Romania and
Bulgaria. Along the lines of people with
high qualifications being employed in manufacturing, Malta had improved
slightly between 2006 and 2011 but its level of roughly eight per cent was far
below the EU 20 per cent average.

Malta lags
severely behind the EU average on Labour productivity per hour worked and
person employed, the same stands for the percentage of employees in
manufacturing with high educational attainment and the number of graduates in
mathematics, science and technology.

On a positive
note, Malta is the leading Member State in share of high-tech exports of total
exports, however at the same time it is the State at the far end on exports of
environmental goods as a percentage of all exports of goods.

Malta fairs
very badly in the time required to start a business with the EU average being
around 14 days and in Malta averaging around 40 days. The same goes for the
business environment in Malta. In fact Malta was ranked in the EU's last place
in terms of the country's business environment.
The EU as a whole had slightly improved upon its business environment
and the rankings were led by the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
Malta is the second Member State with the highest cost of electricity for the
private sector, surpassed just by Italy.

We are doing
very well in the percentage of broadband lines with speed above 10 MBps Malta
is also doing very well in burden of government regulation and even
e-government usage by enterprises is somewhat positive Access to bank lending
for SMEs is also seen as positive but this is something we are a bit sceptical
about.

In its conclusion the report stated
that Malta continues to withstand the impact of the international crisis
relatively well. Given the large size of its financial sector and the high
exposure of domestic banks to the real estate sector, maintaining financial
stability remains crucial.

In terms of structural reforms,
medium and long-term sustainable growth will depend on the successful move to a
more knowledge-based economy, further improving skills and the utilisation of
human capital, and adopting more ambitious R&D targets.

Investment plans for improving the
energy supply are encouraging as they promise to reduce dependency, improve
cost competitiveness and boost efficiency. Policy measures to address the
challenges involved in meeting climate and renewable energy targets need to be
maintained and stepped up. Efforts to implement the Small Business Act with the
support of the business community, a large majority of which are SMEs, should
be maintained.

Attention: Family Businesses


GRTU would like to extend to
you an invitation for a half-day seminar on Tuesday 8th October  2013 at the Intercontinental Malta. The cost
of the seminar is of €20 and to register kindly send an email on .

 

The Agenda will be as follows:

08.30     Registration and Welcome Coffee

09.00     Welcome Address and Introductory
Speech – MAFE President Mario Duca

09.15     Opening Speech – The Hon Minister Dr.
Chris Cardona

09.30     A European Union Perspective on Family
Businesses – Dr. Johanna Drake, Director, Promotion of SMEs compete     tiveness DG Enterprise and Industry,

09.50     Legal and Tax Implication of the
Family Business Act – Dr. Jean Philippe Chetcuti, Managing Partner at Chetcuti    Cauchi
and Secretary of the Malta Association of Family Enterprises

10.15     Banking and Financing Perspectives –
Mr. Albert Frendo, Chef Officer Credit BOV p.l.c.

10.45     Networking Coffee Break

11.15     Family Business Developments – Mr.
Darius Movaghar  Policy Advisor from the
European Family Businesses, Brus    sels

11.40     Breaking up into 4 discussion groups
with each Group discussing a specific area.

           Group A: Definition of the term ‘Family' for
the objective of a Family Business

           Group B: Who is to be considered as a ‘Family
Business'

           Group C: Succession and Family Governance

           Group D: Education and Training of Family
Businesses

12.20     Presentation of points raised by
Group Moderators

12.40     Round-up presentation on points
raised.                              

12.50     Closing Address by Mario Duca MAFE
President

 

 

Consultation Session: Reducing Emissions from the Shipping Industry

The Malta-EU
Steering & Action Committee (MEUSAC) together with the Ministry for
Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change (MSDEC) and the Ministry
for Transport and Infrastructure (MTI), will be organising a consultation
session on a proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the
Council on the monitoring, reporting and verification of carbon dioxide (CO2)
emissions from maritime transport and amending Regulation (EU) no 525/2013 (COM
(2013) 480).

The
proposed Regulation will create an EU-wide legal framework for collecting and
publishing verified annual data on CO2 emissions from all large ships (over
5000 gross tons) that use EU ports, irrespective of where the ships are
registered. Ship owners will have to monitor and report the verified amount of
CO2 emitted by their large ships on voyages to, from and between EU ports.
Owners will also be required to provide certain other information, such as data
to determine the energy efficiency of ships. A document of compliance issued by
an independent authority will have to be carried on board ships and will be
subject to inspection by Member State authorities.

The session will be held on Tuesday, October 22, at Europe House, 254, St
Paul's Street, Valletta from 10:00 till 12:00.

Attendance
must be registered at:

Volume of retail trade up by 0.7% in euro area

In August 2013
compared with July 2013, the seasonally adjusted volume of retail trade
increased by 0.7% in the euro area (EA17) and by 0.4% in the EU28, according to
estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. In July
retail trade gained 0.5% in both zones. In August 2013 compared with August
2012, the retail sales index fell by 0.3% in the euro area and rose by 0.3% in
the EU28.

Unemployment rates in the Euro Area

The euro area (EA17) seasonally-adjusted unemployment
rate was 12.0% in August 2013, stable compared with July. The EU28 unemployment
rate was 10.9%, also stable compared with July. In both zones, rates have risen
compared with August 2012, when they were 11.5% and 10.6% respectively. These
figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

In August 2013, 26.595 million men and women
were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 19.178 million were in the euro area.
Compared with July 2013, the number of persons unemployed remained nearly
stable in both the EU28 and the euro area. Compared with August 2012,
unemployment rose by 882 000 in the EU28 and by 895 000 in the euro area.

Europe keeps world leading position in solar panel installations

Despite a
crisis-driven decline in investment, global production of photovoltaic (PV)
cells grew by 10% in 2012. Europe remains leader in newly installed capacities
with over half (51.7%) of the new worldwide capacity of 30 GW.

This brought the
total solar PV systems capacity in Europe to 69 GW, enough to meet 2.4% of
Europe's electricity demand or to power all Italian households. Within the EU,
Germany remains on top with an additional 7.6 GW. Italy can now cover over 7%
of its electricity demand thanks to newly installed 3.5 GW. The increasing role
of PV energy systems in the transition to a low carbon energy economy is
evident: Production of PV cells and modules has gone from 46 MW in 1990 to 38.5
GW in 2012. These are some of the highlights of the 12th edition of the PV
Status Report released today by the European Commission's in-house science
service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC).

GRTU welcomes return of British Airways

GRTU
hospitality and leisure division has expressed their satisfaction on the
announcement of the return of the British Airways to Malta that will start
operations in March. The Section takes this opportunity to welcomes the airline
and augurs it success. It emphasized this will continue broadening Malta's
marketing mix as a country which is something GRTU always believed in.

Malta Chamber of SMEs
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