Category: Archive – 2013

The Malta
Association of Family Enterprises (MAFE) 
in collaboration with Bank of Valletta has organised a ‘Family Business
Act': ‘Half-Day Seminar and Discussion Workshop' where the challenges of family
businesses were outlined and discussed in line with the incentives of the
proposed Family Business Act.

The seminar focused mainly on the launched Family
Business Act consultation process, and the manner in which it should facilitate
matters for family businesses particularly in relation to succession. Hon. Dr
Cardona, Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Businesses said that
the new government strongly believes that family businesses are the backbone of
the Maltese economy and the catalyst for economic growth and job creation. He
announced that the government will be legislating in favour of a Family
Business Act. Hon. Chris Cardona also discussed the consultation process which
has been ongoing since work on the creation of a Family Business Act commenced
earlier this year.

Mr.
Mario Duca, President, Malta Association of Family Enterprises (MAFE) explained
that the majority of family businesses fail as a result of internal factors and
not due to business factors and how they differ substantially from those in
other companies due to the interlocking relationships between the family,
business and ownership structures. Mr Duca informed that MAFE was recently
accepted as a member of the European Family Businesses as a result for being an
active role, by voicing and lobbying such interests both on a national and
international level.

Mr
Albert Frendo, Chief Officer Credit, Bank of Valletta, spoke about the
development and transition of family businesses over time, their resilience
which is one of their key attributes and the characteristics that banks look at
for a sound banking relationship with such businesses.

Dr. Jean
Philippe Chetcuti, MAFE Secretary said that Maltese law, lacks clear
legislation and imposes financial burdens upon family businesses. He said that
legislating in favour of family enterprises would provide the structural
support that enable family enterprises to grow and flourish through
generations. He also explained how family businesses should benefit from the
same incentives as Groups of Companies in respect of stamp duty and other tax
incentives during share transfers taking place between family members.

From a
European perspective, Dr. Joanna Drake, DG Enterprise, explained how the EU
recognises the special nature of family businesses and that it strives to
actively fight for a European policy which does not negatively affect family
businesses but rather, creates a level playing field.

Mr.
Darius Movaghar, Policy Director at European Family Businesses, described
Malta's initiative as ground breaking and the Family Business Act will be a
unique piece of legislation as no other Member State of the EU has, to date,
enacted a formal law specifically addressing family businesses.

The
panel discussion also highlighted the importance of supporting the family
enterprises structures through different mediums and through the provision of
funding for further investment in training, governance and growth.

The
Seminar and Discussion Workshops were moderated by Ms. Vanessa Macdonald.

This information is already available online in
relation to "mixed waste" collection, again after this was requested by Green
MT, over two years ago.

It is very important that Local Councils can access
environmental information and be able together with Schemes to take any action
deemed necessary to increase collection figures of packaging waste.

Our request to publish information of recyclables
should have no objection by WasteServ as since Jan 01, 2013 both recovery
Schemes use the services of the same MRF facility for recovery of the grey or
green bag.

In discussions held with the new administration at
WasteServ, they state that "prima-facie" they see no problem in doing this as
the information is available and there are no IT problems of any nature.

If this is the case, we see no reason why WasteServ
should not move on and place these figures online as of January 01, 2013.

Another suggestion to the same issue would be to
change the accessibility feature on WasteServ's main website page. Currently to
access information related to mixed waster collected from Local Councils, one
has to click on "Company Statistics". This is misleading and should be changed
to "Local Councils Statistics".

We continue to strive and work hard to make sure that
environmental information is provided online for our Local Councils and
citizens across Malta & Gozo. Whilst for some, such an issue looks so
simple, it seems that through tangled bureaucracy or the lack of taking
decisions continues to grind the wheels. Let's move on.

GRTU President
Paul Abela participated at an event organized by the European Economic and
Social Committee (EESC) in Malta as one of a speaker during a panel discussion.
In his intervention Mr Abela emphasised the importance of the schemes such as
JEREMIE to help SMEs restructure, invest and innovate and come out of the
crises.

"Business
is not the problem, but rather the solution. Therefore, business has to take
centre stage in the new economic plans the EU will be proposing and possibly
introducing over the months to come." These were the concluding remarks of the
address delivered by Mr. David G. Curmi, President of the Malta Chamber of
Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.

The
objective of the conference was to initiate a frank and open debate on the
various responses to the financial and economic crisis in EU Member States and
analyse them from a business perspective. The aim was to encourage an exchange
of views, diagnoses and practices between EESC Employers' Group Members and
leading Maltese business representatives.

Two
panel discussions took place. The first dealt with questions from a national
point of view and an exchange of ideas as to how the governments and employers
were dealing with the crisis and which best practices were adopted.  The first panel was moderated by Vanessa
Macdonald and included members of the EESC Employers Group. The second panel
was moderated by Stefano Mallia, Vice 
President of the EESC Employers' Group. It discussed Europe's response to
the economic crises and whether the EU was aware of the needs and realities of
employers. The panel was composed of the Hon. Dr. Mario de Marco – Deputy
Leader of the Opposition and Spokesman on the Economy, Investment and Small
Business, Mr. Gérald Petit – Policy Analyst – Analysis of Economic Reforms, DG
Enterprise, Mr. David Curmi – President of the Malta Chamber of Commerce,
Enterprise and Industry, Mr. Arthur Muscat – President, MEA, Mr. Tony Zahra –
President, MHRA and Mr. Paul Abela – President, GRTU.  

The
closing address was delivered by the Prime Minister, the Hon. Dr. Joseph Muscat.

Written
by Melissa Lipman of Law 360 from New York on March 25th, 2010, 3.04 PM ET – Quote: "Italy's
Antitrust watchdog has hit ButanGas SpA and Liquigas SpA with nearly €22
million in fines for allegedly participating in a cartel of liquefied petroleum
gas supplies, following on Eni SpA's admission that top executives from all
three companies had been meeting to set prices for more than a decade.

Eni
escaped penalty by providing evidence of the anti-competitive activity with its
leniency application. The Autorita Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato
fined ButanGas nearly €4.9 million and Liquigas more than €17.1 million last
Wednesday. Fines were based on the severity and length of the cartel, the
Autorita said.

The  three companies operated a cartel from 1994
to 2005 to fix the retail price for liquefied petroleum gas in cylinders and
small reservoirs in Italian island-province Sardinia, though the effects of the
agreements continued to harm consumers for at least a year after the
anti-competitive behaviour stopped, according to the regulator.

The
Autorita had responded to high prices for LNG cylinders in Sardinia by opening
an investigation into that market in April 2008. Eni came forward seeking
leniency in October of that year. The regulator said it also suspended other
providers – including Fiamma 2000 SpA, Sarda Gas Petroli di Antonio Pisani
& CSAS and Ultra gas Tirrena SpA – of anti-competitive behaviour, but that
it did not expect to uncover evidence proving their involvement in the Sardinian
cartel.

In its
request for leniency, the Italian energy giant said its chief executive officer
had engaged in meeting with similarly high level executives at Liquigas and
ButanGas to create parallel pricelists for their gas products. From a statement
given by its former top executive, Eni told the regulator that the heads of the
three companies met frequently to adjust their prices based in changes in the
global rates for raw materials, according to the Autorita.

The
executives fixed process at those meetings without leaving a written record to
the agreements Eni told the regulator.

The
Autorita said its own investigation confirmed that top executives from the
three companies met regularly over that time period to lay out standard product
prices.

The
regulator further found that each company changed its price lists by the same
amount around the same time.

The
Autorita said it will broaden its investigation into the three companies to see
if they colluded to fix gas prices across the country, based on another leniency
application Eni filed in January 2009.

Representatives
for BurtonGas and Liquigas, a joint venture between Dutch Energy Giant SHV Gas
and Italy's Gruppo Brixia ITAF were not immediately available for comment
Thursday".  Unquote

The
above article was written by Melissa Lipman of Law 360 in New York.

Mr
Roberto Cappelluto of Liquigas in Malta yesterday expressed his deep concern
that consumers in Malta are not reaping the benefits of the €25million
investment – because 23 gas distributors are refusing to accept that their
territorial agreement dating back to 1992 is now null & void.

We duly
comment that these 23 distributors have held back locally what has happened in
Sardinia between 1994 and 2005.

GRTU has presented a comprehensive set of proposals aimed at
boosting SMEs. In his foreword GRTU President Paul Abela stated that GRTU
continues to emphasise how much we need to keep pushing forward to ‘build
confidence and drive growth'. He insisted that enterprises need to be supported
better also through the improvement in their working environment.

The set of proposals presented are the result of
intensive consultation with our members and research of the best practices that
have proven very successful in other countries. GRTU, as the largest national
representative of SMEs, feels that many of the schemes mentioned are the key to
unlocking the full potential of SMEs and giving them aid where it really
matters. Amongst GRTU's proposals are the following:     

1. Relaunching the
Micro Invest Scheme.

2. Establishment
of a Business Angels Matching Service and a platform for crowd funding as well
as tapping into venture capital. All of these with some facilitation by Government
could render results that far outreach the initial investment.

3. Facilitate of
start-ups especially with regards access to finance, which is essentially the
biggest obstacle, through cash-injections and the financial start-up scheme
which involves covering the costs of renting a premises for a very short period
and the capped pay of the owner for one month. This would help because it would
give the minimum amount of time required to get some initial clients and start
building a name.

4. Increasing the
services offered by the business incubation and making it more dynamic.

5. Increasing the
number of routes to Malta and attracting tourists during the slower season.

6. Boosting the
crafts sector through the organisation of the Crafts Village, establishing a
national crafts policy, quality testing and certification system for locally
produced crafts, and reduction of VAT to 7% on such goods, incentives to
upgrade factories and workshops and helping the crafts sector export.

7. An E-Commerce
strategy including awareness raising on the potential of e-commerce and free
expert advice to enterprises on the subject on what systems they could use,
which would be accompanied by incentives to set up such systems.

8. Revision of the
eco taxation mechanism.

9. Schemes to
encourage investment in employment and training that are not time barred,
simpler in their application and reimbursed by a specified deadline.

10. Increasing
activities in the localities though permitting for change of use of empty
buildings to back-office, etc and accompanied by a tax-credit incentive,
incentives for the establishment of boutique hotels and B&Bs in the
localities as well as investment in the general infrastructure of the
localities through private public partnerships.

11. Granting of
title of emphyteusis in lieu of lease to private enterprises over Government
owned properties. GRTU also encourages Government to consider the sale of
properties that have been leased or granted under title of emphyteusis to the
private sector for a substantial number of years.

12. Incentivising
the involvement of the private sector in healthcare.

13. Scheme for the
restructuring of current industrial facilities. Some of these are currently in
very precarious situations.

14. Financial
measures that support innovative investments projects by SMEs, providing
research assistants with subsidised pays, an R&D Research and Development
Grant Scheme and a dedicated helpdesk.

15. Creation of
networks for internationalisation. This would help businesses expand into new
markets and increase their exports through increased collaboration and sharing
of contacts.

16. Increasing
competition in land based gaming and regulate illegal operations in this
sector. Introduction of High Stake control and limit the amounts played on the
Hot Numbers.

17. Fiscal schemes
to attract the buy-to-let sector through lower VAT rates and fixed income tax
rate for income generated from the rent of properties. GRTU also called for the
clarification in the regulation of the applicable licences required to lease a
property.

18. Encourage SMEs
to take a more proactive approach in the servicing of large scale renewable.

19. Immediate
Introduction of the Property Market Value Index.

20. Establishment
of an Early Warning Foundation where consultants offer free advice to
enterprises in difficulty on the improvement of their management skills and
helps them in their banking negotiations. The foundation would help companies
avoid bankruptcy and help those that have no other choice to extract themselves
from impossible situations and live to fight another day.

21. Upgrade of
current boat yards and tackle the shortage of marinas and pontoon berths.

22. Incentives for
upgrade and investment in commercial vehicles and Limited Mileage Incentive.

23. Overhaul of the
National Policy in respect to recovery of mixed waste and the setting up of a
Producer Responsibility Enforcement Committee to monitor the implementation and
enforcement of the Packaging Waste Directive, WEEE, Construction and Demolition
Waste, End of life Vehicles and Batteries.

24. Act on the
injustice whereby the percentage charged by banks or by the operator (in the
case of smart cards) for electronic payments is charged not only on the price
of the product but also on the VAT element.

25. A widespread scheme for Gozo enterprises to help them mitigate the
transport cost of transit between Malta and Gozo. Increase the efficiency of
the Gozo Channel and set up a scheme to mitigate the imbalance in employment
many Gozitan enterprises go through between the summer and the winter months.

26. Introduction of a night tariff and the decrease in rental fees on the
meters for commercial users.

27. Revisit the new strategy of online public procurement and set up a
helpdesk to help SMEs with the process. GRTU also proposes reducing the costs
for tendering.

28. Remove the need of audits for micro companies and exempt non-trading
companies from the audit requirement.

29. Severely beef up efforts to tackle VAT and Eco Tax evasion on goods
coming into Malta and sold for commercial purposes.

30. Specific course for females in entrepreneurship and a campaign
targeting women and their role in society and the economy.

31. Exposing young people with ideas to potential investors. Fostering
entrepreneurship amongst our young through courses and taking inspiring
entrepreneurs to schools to give their testimony.

32. Allow self-employed to receive their pension early where this is
possible without the need to remain idle for one year. On having access to
pension individuals should also be allowed to continue working without having
to pay for NI.

33. Foster deeper
relationships between business and academia and initiative a wave of
accreditation for skilled self-employed and manual workers. GRTU also calls for
the facilitation of transfer of skills and the establishment of Sector Skills
Councils (SSCs).

The European
Commission has launched a consultation inviting stakeholders to share their
views about crowdfunding: its potential benefits, risks, and the design of an
optimal policy framework to untap the potential of this new form of financing.

Commissioner
for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier said: "Crowdfunding – this
alternative form of fundraising that is collective, participatory and
interactive – is becoming increasingly important. It has the potential to
bridge the financing gap many start-ups face and to stimulate entrepreneurship.
Considering the development of crowdfunding and the diversity of regulatory,
supervisory, fiscal and social frameworks for it across the EU, do we need a
single European framework to support both those who develop crowdfunding
platforms and to reduce the risks to those who make use of such platforms to
finance projects. That is what I am asking."

Whereas
many crowdfunding campaigns are local in nature, others would benefit from
easier access to financing within a single European market. But to make sure
crowdfunding is not just a momentary trend that fades away, but rather a
sustainable source of financing for new European projects, certain safeguards
are needed, in particular to ensure people's trust. The ultimate objective of
this consultation is to gather data about the needs of market participants and
to identify the areas in which there is a potential added value in EU action to
encourage the growth of this new industry, either through facilitative,
soft-law measures or legislative action.

The
consultation covers all forms of crowdfunding, ranging from donations and
rewards to financial investments. Everyone is invited to share their opinion
and fill in the on-line questionnaire, including citizens who might contribute
to crowdfunding campaigns and entrepreneurs who might launch such campaigns.
National authorities and crowdfunding platforms are also particularly
encouraged to reply.

The
consultation will run until 31 December 2013. It is available at: 

http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/2013/crowdfunding/index_en.htm

Trade ministers
from the European Union's member states will next Friday (18 October) formally
give the European Commission a mandate to negotiate an investment agreement
with China.

The
mandate, which passed through the member states' working group on trade without
comment on 2 October, would help to put the EU's trade relationship with China
on a positive footing after months of disputes over Chinese producers' pricing
of solar panels and telecommunications equipment.

Last
month, Karel De Gucht, the European commissioner for trade, suggested that an
investment agreement would open the way to far deeper liberalisation. "Over
time, there will be a free-trade agreement between China and Europe. I am sure
about that," De Gucht said.

Accessing
more areas

The
negotiations would seek to open the many sectors of the Chinese economy that
European companies say are closed off to them, or to which access is possible
only with many conditions attached. The other track would look at the
protection of investments.

At
present, investment in both directions is relatively small, though growing.
Just 2.1% of the EU's foreign direct investment is in China, De Gucht told the
European Parliament on Tuesday (8 October).

An
investment agreement is seen as valuable for China principally as an assurance
that the EU's market will remain open in the long term.

Points
of concern

De Gucht
told Parliament that sustainable development and "a reference in support of
internationally recognised standards of corporate social responsibility" would
be among the points of particular concern for the EU.

The
Commission has not indicated when it would hope to complete talks on what would
be the first stand-alone investment agreement negotiated by the EU. It says
that an estimate is difficult, because it is aiming for ambitious results. The
Commission's usual ambition is to complete free-trade agreements, which now
include investment agreements, within two years.

Talks
could receive the blessing of China's leaders at the EU-China summit. De Gucht
said that the summit will be held on 21 November, though the date has not yet
been confirmed by China.

The EU
and China will hold their first high-level trade and economic dialogue in more
than two years on 24 October, a sign that both sides want to move beyond the
rancour that characterised the dispute over the dumping of Chinese solar
panels. The case was effectively settled in August, when Chinese producers
agreed to a minimum sales price.

The EU's
member states gave the Commission the power to negotiate terms for investment
protection in 2009, when they ratified the Lisbon treaty. Investment issues
will now be normal elements of the EU's free-trade talks.

Around
100 of the Commission's trade officials had expected to spend the week in talks
with US counterparts on a transatlantic free-trade deal. However, the week-long
second round of negotiations was called off late last Friday (4 October)
because of the shutdown of large parts of the US government caused by a dispute
over the US budget. Once the shutdown is over, the talks will resume as a
matter of priority, officials say.

Call for
Applications for participation in Brokerage Events and Pre-Submission
Consortium Meetings – 2013The objective of the scheme is to facilitate
participation in HORIZON 2020 through participation in brokerage events and
meetings held in preparation of project proposals. For more information visit: http://www.mcst.gov.mt/node/613

The deadline
for application forms is 31 October 2013

The Malta-EU
Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC) will be organising a consultation
session on ‘Proposal for a Council Directive Amending Directive 2011/16/EU as
regards mandatory automatic exchange of information in
the field of taxation'.   

This consultation
session will focus on a system of automatic exchange of information through
which Member States collect data on income earned in their territory by
non-resident individuals. They then automatically transmit this data to the
authorities where the individual resides, so that it can be taxed in line with
the Member State of residence's rules.

The consultation session
will be held on Friday, October 25th, 2013 at 2:30 p.m. at MEUSAC, 280,
Republic Street, Valletta.

The Malta-EU
Steering and Action Committee (MEUSAC) together with the Ministry of Tourism
will be organising a consultation session on a Directive from the European
Commission entitled ‘Package travel
and assisted travel arrangements, amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004,
Directive 2011/83/EU and repealing Council Directive 90/314/EEC'.

The proposed
Directive will clarify and modernise the scope of travellers' protection when
purchasing combinations of travel services for the same trip or holiday by
bringing within its scope different forms of on-line packages and assisted
travel arrangements. The Proposal will also ensure that travellers are better
informed about the services they are buying and grant them clearer remedies if
something goes wrong.

The consultation session
will be held on Monday, October 14, 2013 at 2.00pm at Europe House, 254, St
Paul's, Street, Valletta. Proceedings will be held in Maltese

To register, please contact: