Category: Archive – 2008

 

Ladies and Gentlemen

Its a pleasure for me to be present here with you today, a day specially dedicated to SMEs. The importance of such a day to the Maltese economy is even more pronounced given the fact that micro and small enterprises form the backbone of our economy.

Late last year The Malta Enterprise Act underwent a revision to include a new range of incentives in line with the current EU State Aid policies. The remit of Malta Enterprise included that of articulating incentives to promote the growth and sustainability of the local economy particularly through SMEs.

The primary vision of Malta Enterprise remains that of increasing SMEs' investment in High to Medium Technology sectors such as aviation and precision components; high-end electronics; pharmaceuticals, medical and healthcare. It also promotes investment in medium to low technology sectors such as the film making industry; international logistics; maritime; oil and gas. Knowledge Based Industries are also important for the economy and these include education and training; software development; research and development; shared services and back office operations.

Malta Enterprise also looks towards assisting the local SMEs to sell their locally produced goods abroad. This assistance applies to a range of sectors but particularly the indigenous businesses in the sectors of food processing and packaging, publishing and printing.

Supporting Maltese based SME's

ME Chairman, Alan Camilleri – 6/24/2008

Finally Malta Enterprise sustains those local sectors that are exposed to high risk. We need to help them move up the value chain to ensure their sustainability. These sectors include furniture making; engineering workshops and clothing.

The rationale behind this vision is a combination of three economic criteria. The first is value added operations. The higher the value added per employee, the higher the contribution towards the local economy. It also ensures a longer sustainability lifecycle. Low value-added exposes the enterprise to vulnerability in a number of areas.

The second economic criterion is the notion of capital inflows. The importance of a healthy export oriented industry is crucial to any economy as it contributes towards the country's balance of payments. This is even more crucial in the contenxt of a small island economy such as that of our islands, which is inherently dependent on imports for its basic commodities. Economic growth can realistically take place only through foreign direct investment and exports.

The third is the market diversity of industrial sectors. Diversity is important especially in our relatively open economy. Lessening any dependence on any one particular industrial sector will shelter us from the ill-effects of international market volatitilties and external shocks. Incentivising new SMEs to enter an already saturated local market does not make any economic sense both for the economy as well as for the entrepreneur. Malta Enterprise needs to deliver its vision by encouraging additionality: that is, helping new economic activities that otherwise would not take place.

Together, all these three economic criteria of value-adding potential; capital inflows and a market diversification context need to be considered when Malta Enterprise assesses those enterprises that need assistance. This effort is important so as to optimize the finite amount of assistance that the Maltese government can give under the State Aid rules that would eventually reap the most economic returns.

SMEs, the subject of today's seminar, always play a crucial role in the economy of any country. SMEs clearly constitute the majority of recipients of any aid administered by Malta Enterprise. Most economies have a substantial number of registered SMEs particularly if one also includes the micro enterprises that employ 10 or less. This clearly indicates the importance of this size of companies.

However the generic classification of SMEs is difficult to analyze without looking at the different sectors within the classification and their different impacts on the economy. Some sectors, for example, are crucial for the national economy even if they do not generate any foreign revenue earnings. Education is one such sector.

On the other hand sectors in the technology manufacturing sectors typically have an element of all three economic criteria I mentioned before, and because of this, remain the focus of the efforts of Malta Enterprise.

The Changing Manufacturing Scenario

Public statements made regarding the decrease in manufacturing output viz-a-viz the increases in the tourism industry may lead some to wrongly conclude that tourism has overtaken the manufacturing industry in importance and size. The contribution of Malta's manufacturing output rather than decreased as some sources infer, has migrated to higher value adding activities with a concomitant net increase.

The manufacturing output in apparel has migrated, amongst others, to a slightly lower output of electronics and pharmaceutical sectors but with a much highern value rendering more benefits to our economy. So though it may be true that overall the output volume is less, the emerging sectors contribute more to the economy than those lost. Meanwhile international manufacturing is also becoming more complex to define as it involves more and more specialist subcontractors in the areas of product design, training, logistics and maintenance. Take these manufacturing activities out from under the umbrella of a large manufacturing enterprise and suddenly you have a fledging subcontractor industry that typically falls within the definition of a knowledge-based industry. These sub contracting activities, strongly allied to the manufacturing industry, are dependent and integral to the current definition of manufacturing and are very different to the other services industry. However, this same fragmentation of the manufacturing sector also contributes towards functional specialisation with more and better skills required.

The local SME specialist enterprise can benefit significantly from this fragmentation of the manufacturing firms because the larger enterprises realise that these specialist SMEs offer solutions that are more cost effective than those provided for internally. This fragmentation also leaves the large enterprise with more time and energy to focus on its core business. The large enterprises are looking more and more outside their companies not only for innovative ideas on their product design, but also on innovative ideas on how their products are produced, marketed and sold.

Manufacturing encompasses the full chain of activities from marketing to designing a product that the market needs; the making of the product right to the sales; and logistics as well as after sales support. One may rightly argue that typically the foreign companies with production units in Malta have opted to keep the marketing and product development units safely tucked away in their native country. Admittedly, we now need to incentivise the migration to Malta of these elements as well through specific incentives by Malta Enterprise. This would not only lengthen the sustainability duration of the bundled foreign activities, but it also opens new opportunities for our workforce to gain new skills in marketing and product design.

Becoming a local specialist SME globally supplying innovative services to large international enterprises is not easy. Of course information and communication technologies (ICT) are the enabling tools for this service to take place. What is more important however is that the local sub-contractor has crucial first hand experience and skills in the manufacturing sector that has conveniently been provided by the larger foreign investors. This is the true knowledge industry part that adds that extra added value and increases our competitiveness. Of course the increasing potential in the sub-contractor industry is not only for those allied to manufacturing. The industries involving call centres, financial services, ICT and tourism are also very important to the national economy. However the advantages and opportunities that arise from the successfully evolving manufacturing sectors are also important for Malta's long term strategy.

These may not be clearly visible to the general public, but the successful foreign direct investment in local manufacturing, and the allied sub-contractor sectors, still have a long and important contribution to our continuing economic sustainability.

Widening eligibility in favour of local manufacturing under the recent modifications of the Malta Enterprise Act, Investment Aid has now been opened up to include all manufacturing activities as well as the subcontractor sectors. This is a benefit to the local manufacturing SMEs that previously were not been eligible for Investment Aid. Under the old Business Promotion Act (BPA), Investment Aid was restricted to only the target sectors involved in export. With the revised Malta Enterprise Act sectors such as furniture making, printing and food processing and packaging have now become eligible for the tax credits under the Investment Aid scheme. Several hundred SME local manufacturers are now already eligible Positive Discrimation in favour of SMEs.

The Malta Enterprise Act also established the principle of positive action towards SMEs by offering higher "Intensity Levels". Intensity Levels are the percentage of assistance that each member state can give. The Intensity levels awarded to SMEs are higher than large companies. For example in Investment Aid whilst large companies obtain 30% tax credit on the investment total, SME's can get up to 50%.

Aid for local exporters

As already noted, export is important for the local economy because it generates crucial foreign revenues that is so important for local economic growth. Under them Malta Enterprise Act there are incentives for manufacturing SMEs to promote the sales of their locally manufactured goods abroad particularly in the EU market. ME's assistance ranges from helping the SMEs develop new products right through to putting together export plans that include product and market research in the targeted countries.

Start ups

Start-ups are crucial to the sustainability of the local economy and can be seen as the crucial birth-rate of our SME population. Malta Enterprise not only encourages but actually facilitates and houses the setting up of promising micros at the Kordin Business Incubation Centre particularly if they show commitment in attaining a good performance of all the three economic criteria. Over the past 5 years, the KBIC has facilitated the birth of over 50 SMEs at a success rate of 86%. A couple of these, namely Inspectra and JTI, have grown not only to meet the 3 economic criteria but also have gone on to employ over 100 employees each. These two examples can be termed as star performers and justify why theKBIC is now being expanded from its present 5200 square meters to an eventual facility of some 9000 square meters through the use of European Regional Development Funds (ERDF).

Research & Development

Malta Enterprise is awaiting EU approval for its plans to launch new incentives to support R&D in Malta. Malta has a low proportion of SMEs engaged in R&D and is urrently one of the lowest in the EU. We shall be promoting and envisage a ignificant growth of R&D activities being carried out in Malta over the next few years. These new incentives will support what is termed as industrial research and experimental research. These types of research are less risky as they are close to market and most of the development has a high chance of it ending as a commercial and profitable product that is not only made in Malta but also designed in Malta.

Research and Development is also important for the present foreign companies already set-up on the island. Typically such companies would have set up locally with the intention of only carrying out their manufacturing activities. Some of them may already feel the economic pinch especially if their value-adding levels are falling. The introduction of R&D locally would automatically improve the value-adding factor of their bundled activities because of the substantially higher value adding of the R&D activities. Local SMEs have an excellent opportunity in working with the foreigners to establish a local R&D subcontractor network. SME's are clearly perceived as being more agile and innovative than the larger more bureaucratic large enterprises. It is a fact that within the global economy, the international trend is that SMEs carry out R&D as sub-contractors to large companies. This encourages innovative SMEs to specialize in the different branches of R&D and work with the large companies in the different sectors. This helps technology transfer between different industries as well as between universities and industry thereby making the recipient more competitive. SMEs that engage in R&D in Malta will receive more aid through the Malta Enterprise Act than the large companies because again higher aid intensities are allowed by State Aid rules. Part of these grants are intended to be funded by the EU under ERDF programs.

These ERDF schemes will compliment the successful EUREKA R&D schemes. Over the past 2 years Malta Enterprise has committed 350,000 Euros to leverage over 1.2 million Euros worth of local research and development. The estimated economic benefits from these projects are significantly more. The nine locally based companies that are individually using these funds along with more funds of theirs and of their foreign partners, will ensure that their resulting products are not only commercially viable but also have higher chances on the global market at a truly internationally competitive level.

Access to Finance

SMEs in all manufacturing sectors as well as, pharmaceutical and biotechnology; software development; call centres; and filming industry can be supported with loan guarantees, soft loans and loan interest subsidies. These forms of financial assistance still arise from the Business Development Act and were and will remain very applicable also for SMEs.

Regretfully the quality of the SME projects and their efforts to meet the three economic criteria seem to be lower in the typical Maltese projects that Malta Enterprise receives. However Malta Enterprise is sure that the seasoned entrepreneurs together with the up and coming technologists can put together promising projects that would be very eligible for the full range of assistance offered by Malta Enterprise.

Of course apart from this type of financial assistance from ME, and loans from the local banks, local industries are still missing venture capitalists. Notwithstanding the fact of the evidence of significant local investment in property, stocks and shares and retailing businesses, there has been little interest from local private investors to provide this crucial funding for our star SMEs. Government has over the past few years committed to put some 2 million Euros in a pot with the intention of leveraging a further 20 million Euros from private investors for Malta first official Venture Capital fund. Regretfully, it seems that the private investor was not ready to commit their end of the funds leaving SME projects with high economic potential by the wayside.

Gozo

Of course I cannot but include a special mention on Gozo. Gozo's economy as a region needs special attention to ensure that double insularity issues are properly addressed. Last year Malta Enterprise launched a series of support incentives to promote industrial activity in Gozo with successful results particularly in the ICT enabled sectors.

Double insularity is defined when any physical produce of Gozo has to be first ferried across to Malta before it begins its journey to overseas markets typically by sea. Some EU officials claim that other regions in Europe suffer significantly larger insulation from the EU markets than Gozo. However, this does not mean that Malta Enterprise will lessen its efforts to alleviate this situation or seek alternative economic activities that are less susceptible to any double insularity effects.

Gozo's economy is perceived to be less based on manufacturing industry than that of Malta. This may not necessarily be a bad thing as the vision set for Gozo's to become an eco-island may not be compatible with a strongly industrialised manufacturing sector. However, the investment levels in the food industry, such as that of Magro Brothers, can be seen to be complementary of the Gozo eco-friendly image and can actually help the discerning visitor in buying high-quality and high-value adding food souvenirs.

Malta Enterprise's incentives for Gozo are over and above those already available for the Maltese industries in general. Particularly the incentives further promote investment and employment, offered through the ETC Gozo office, and have successfully encouraged companies like HSBC, 6PM and Datatrak to setup operations in Gozo over the last 18 months. This follows the previous transfer of other activities from Malta to Gozo such as the back office operations of the Maltese utility companies and even private banks.

In a globalized economy, knowledge resources such as know-how, expertise, and intellectual property are becoming more critical than other economic resources such as land, natural resources, or even manpower. A key concept of this sector of economic activity is that of knowledge and education, often referred to as "human capital", and can be treated as a business product. Such educational and innovative intellectual products and services can be exported for a high value return. SMEs operating in knowledge intensive sectors would have a positive economic impact coupled with little negative eco-impact.

One here has to distinguish between a knowledge economy and a web economy. The web-economy is dependent on enterprises like Google and eBay and are dependent on massive interconnectivity rather than on knowledge-based skills. A web-economy enterprise will not have sufficient services for such an operation to be viable on Gozo.

The knowledge based industries (KBIs) are not limited to information technologies (IT). Other knowledge based industries include sectors such as health care and education as a service to visitors seeking break away sabbaticals. KBIs also include activities of writing, composing and authoring in various fields and sectors. There are also the fields of call centres, back-office and on-line logistics operations. The skills requirements of the potential employees in the KBIs vary and may not necessarily require a significant skill set. What ties up all of these is that they are all enabled via IT. These are ideal industries for Gozo as they are again complimentary to eco-island concept and maximise the existent facilities to greet and host visitors.

The transfer of knowledge based activities from Malta to Gozo may not necessarily have a significant economic jump for the collective national economy even though the activities in Gozo may well be more competitive than in Malta.

However, this promotion to transfer Maltese services to Gozo would go a long way to prove that Gozo has the necessary capacity and infrastructure to host specific knowledge based activities. This latter situation will be crucial before foreigners will eventually prefer to invest directly in Gozo rather than in Malta.

Business Support and Innovation

Being a business support organisation, Malta Enterprise helps SMEs to apply new management techniques that produce measurable improvements in their business performance to get more customers and enjoy greater profits. The introduction of new management techniques typically requires a company's time and management commitment and not so much additional finances. In fact Malta Enterprise also offers subsidised assistance to selected SMEs to acquire and implement these new techniques.

Our team of advisors take into account an SME's individual circumstances to come up with a careful mix of management techniques that are relevant to their need. Malta Enterprise can help SMEs learn and implement these new management and innovation techniques so that a company can become more cost efficient and be competitive on international markets.

Malta Enterprise offers various support measures for the competitiveness of SMEs and also offers assistance related to a number of EU programmes and projects such at BTN Malta, CIP Programme, FP7, EUREKA, METTTES and the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) amongst others.

Innovation and competitiveness are very closely linked both in measurable criteria as well as techniques that need to be implemented to improve the efficiency of the SME. Innovation is not only about developing a new technology, it can also be managerial, organisational, or marketing-based. It is also about using existing technologies in new contexts. EU funding opportunities are available to achieve these objectives and Malta Enterprise assists SMEs in particular to identify and learn of ways to participate in these EU projects.

The transfer of technology to the organisation of SMEs is an important way to increase competitiveness and will typically improve delivery times and quality. It also shortens products development time and leads to a new or improved product or service that increases the competitive advantage of the SME. Malta Enterprise also offers assistance for SMEs to better collaborate with

Commercial Partners. The commercial networking between SMEs, buyers and suppliers, as well as colleagues from other companies, helps SMEs find business connections that work. Networks can further develop into business clusters that can be sector specific (e.g. plastics industry), horizontal (e.g. techniques and skills to design new products), as well as vertical (e.g. supply chain). Environmental Protection and Energy Saving Technologies is also an area that Malta Enterprise is active in. The application of environmental or 'green' technologies not only reduces the impact of SMEs on the environment, it can also save money, help comply with environmental legislation and improve the image of the SME with existing and potential customers. They can also ensure that SME activities are more sustainable long-term.

Employment Incentives

One of the final incentives I will be mentioning today is Training Aid under the old BPA that was previously enacted to favour the foreign companies operating in Malta. The new incentives administered by the ETC are now being opened up to all enterprises. SMEs will get a higher percentage of aid. ETC is expected to launching the new schemes around September which will be mainly financed by the EU.

Conclusion

Malta Enterprise has 28 different products to assist SMEs in forming, growing and contributing more and more to the local economy. I have not mentioned schemes like the e-commerce scheme that runs under the Income Tax Act resulting in tax credits for implementing automated systems to sell on-line. Nor have I mentioned the My Potential scheme where several hundred persons have benefited from this scheme which helps individuals to obtain qualifications in IT and applied engineering and sciences. This does not mean that we are doing everything. As Malta Enterprise we need to rethink our SME Strategy now that thankfully, the responsibility for SMEs is not longer fragmented under different Ministries, but falls directly within one portfolio together with the responsibility for the industry and for the economy. Malta Enterprise empathises with local entrapreneurs when they say they need simpler regulations, less tax for home business, one-stop shop concepts when it comes to trading licences and similar. It also appreciates that regulations may have an adverse impact on businesses like when for example MEPA restricts workshops in village cores. These needs are to be discussed further with the scope of finding solutions that are acceptable to all those concerned. At the same time, we need to ensure that assistance goes to those areas which will render returns to both the businessman and the economy. We cannot experiment with failure. We will support creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship, but we will not support those who simply want to get a government factory for its own sake. Even in this matter, we need to review the current rent and allocation policy so that those operators possessing government land are not put at an advantage over those who freely operate in the market. Malta Enterprise must not compete with the private sector but rather support it and its policies must be geared towards enticing the private sector to grow and flourish and not to stifle it through outdated policies which create distortions and unfair competition. It is the remit of Malta Enterprise to identify those sectors that are deemed as market failures. The incentives are there to encourage business people to invest in a diverse range of sectors that are both high value adding as well as foreign revenue earners.

The tourism, retailing and property development industries are well established and even if they may need simplification of regulations, Malta Enterprise does not see the need to incentivise further new businessmen to enter into these crowded sectors. What is not well established however are local businessmen who are investing in other sectors and that is what is deemed as a market failure. Such an investment would make the Maltese economy less vulnerable to economic shocks by being dependent on a variety of industries and markets.

The speaker after the break will give us further details on the Small Business Act

currently being discussed at EU level. The SBA is promoting the following:

1. Better regulation for the benefit of SMEs

2. Putting SMEs at the forefront of society

3. SMEs access to markets

4. SMEs access to finance, skills and innovation

5. Turning the environmental challenge into opportunities for SMEs

6. Enhancing the implementation of EU SME policy principles.

As you have heard, Malta Enterprise has already gone a long way towards the action items of the SBA. If and when the SBA is eventually adopted, Malta Enterprise will seek ways to implement further schemes in order to meet the requirements of the SBA so as to ensure that Maltese based star-SMEs would benefit from the best possible assistance to keep our economy competitive in aglobal context.

Thank you for your attention.

 

 

Small hotels, B&Bs, family-run pensions etc… are at risk: the safety measures required under a new European standard on the safety of swimming pools, which is being voted at the moment are threatening their business. These go as far as saying that they would have to have a lifeguard present at all times, to have a costly risk assessment made, including terrorist risk assessment!

The standard (pr15288-2 Safety requirements for operation of swimming pools) has been developed by a CEN Technical Committee ruled by certifiers and consultants, who have put their interests above those of the people who will have to comply with the standard.

This will be official on 24 June if the standard authorities in the Members States do not vote against! GRTU has already sent an official letter to the person in charge at the Malta Standards Authority (MSA) explaining its position and reasoning of why the MSA should vote against. 

If this standard was voted, many of these small businesses would have to give up offering swimming pools as a service.

NORMAPME, the European Association representing SMEs in the standardisation process, shares HOTREC analysis when stating that "the text still includes a great number of requirements (…) that could be quite burdensome, especially for small hotel pool operators".

The main concerns of small hospitality stakeholders are mainly related to the excessive requirements of the very complex risk assessment and for "overqualified" personnel. They both require financial and human resources that small hotels do not have.

For instance, if this draft standard is approved, the owner of a 5 room hotel run by a couple will need to assess elements like terrorism risks, and undergo trained to become a lifeguard.

The definition of the qualifications required are so strict that only very few people answer these requirements. A hotel can maybe have one staff trained but what happens when this person is sick or on leave?

GRTU fears that if prEN 15288 is approved, it will be used by regulators or some market actors like insurance companies to force small hospitality stakeholders to comply with this standard. Hence, since it will be too costly, complex, heavy, high in red tape and on personnel requirements, these small businesses would have to give up offering swimming pools as a service.

Swimming pools in hotel are a service greatly appreciated by guests. The approval of this European standard would drive tourists from hotels located in Europe to the ones outside Europe (e.g. from northern Mediterranean Sea countries (Europe) to southern Mediterranean Sea countries).

To guarantee the future availability of swimming pools in small hotels, CEN members shall hear the voice of European SMEs and reject this draft standard.

 

The EUROJUS provides free legal advice and information about matters of EU law, in particular relating to the rights of individual citizens, and can provide assistance when citizens have problems with their national authorities.

 

The legal adviser is not meant to be a substitute for your own lawyer, but he can give information on all questions pertaining to Europe. He cannot provide advice on issues such as transnational marriages and divorces, private insurance, inheritance law, disputes with neighbours, etc.

He can give FREE legal advice on the following issues in particular:

* Right of residence in EU Member States

* Social security

* Recognition of qualifications

* Free movement in general

* Guarantees and driving licences

* Consumer protection

* Equal treatment under the EU Treaty

* Judgments of the European Court

* Legal protection

To exercise and enjoy the rights conferred by membership of the European Union, it is important to be aware of the diverse means of Enforcement of European Union Rights. The nature of European Union law is such that issues of European Union law may, in general, be litigated before national courts without recourse to the Community courts. In fact, access to the Community courts by citizens is limited.

Citizens can contact the Eurojus' consultant by phone on Freephone 8007 3177 or by email: on to fix an appointment at the Representation. The legal consultant is Dr. Ivan Sammut.

Dr Sammut is present at the Representation on two half-days a week:

– Every Tuesday from 1pm to 5pm; and

– Every Friday from 9am to 1pm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the UEAPME CONFERENCE hosted by ACCA (The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), GRTU Director General Vincent Farrugia made a strong appeal to the European Commission Vice President Gunter Verheugen who is responsible for SME's to accept UEAPME member's strong pressure to make the provisions incorporated in the new Small Business Act (SBA) legally binding on all the national governments in the Member States.

"We worked hard 9 years ago to produce the Small Business Charter and progress has been registered in the delivery of projects in favour of Small Businesses but the total result is hardly felt. Bureaucracy continued to increase and today business owners spend more hours meeting administrative burdens and paying for government and EU induced costs than before. This in spite of all the Commission and politicians` rhetoric.

The reason is that the Charter was not legally binding and the EU employed poor enforcement procedures on Member States to have all provisions implemented and adhered to. Without legally binding provisions the Small Business Act becomes toothless" Mr Jigi Plecity replied after Vice-President Verheugen said that though not legally enforceable the Act will be strongly monitored from Brussels and will be very hard for Member States to escape from implementation of the conditions of the Act especially since Member State governments welcomed the SBA.

He confirmed that the Final draft of the SBA is now ready and the Commission expects approval by July 25^th of this year.

Vince Farrugia appealed to the COMMISSION to name the Member States who are objecting to the binding clause, so did individual national organisations like GRTU representing SME's can make pressure on their government to accept the binding clause.

UEAPME is the European Federation of National Organisations representing SME's. GRTU president Mr Paul Abela and Mr Vincent Farrugia are members of UEAPME Administrative Council.

 

GRTU President Paul Abela and Director General Vince Farrugia are in London participation in the ANNUAL CONFERENCE of UEAPME.

 

 

Overshadowing this year's Conference is the threat of economic recession as most European small enterprises carry the tremendous burden of increasing fuel and energy prices and falling demand under the unfair competitive pressure of products hitting the European market and produced in countries that do not adhere to the rigid labour and quality standards and social and bureaucratic costs.

European SME leaders are under strong pressure from the members of their Organisations to act and protest publicly to instigate the EU Commission to take strong and decisive action to protect European SME's and prevent the worst.

 

On reading the News "Attard residents to keep ‘smelly' domestic waste inside for 48 hours", published on the MaltaStar website on the 19th of June, Joe Attard, CEO GreenMT, wrote: "With respect to the locality of ATTARD, it is to be noted that there is no collection on Sunday, as such the residents are already keeping their organic waste inside from Saturday to Monday.

 

As well stated by the local council it transpires that when both collections are to be made by the same waste carrier, then collection of the organic waste was being done quite late in the day resulting in a number of difficulties. With respect to the commercial establishments, it is assumed that they will shortly be included in the collection system for recyclables, which is being planned accordingly. However commercial establishments are also not serviced on Sundays to date.

It is also to be noted by one and all that the current agreement between the government and GRTU and the local councils only allows the current waste carrier contracted in each locality for collection of organic waste to collect the separate waste. This will continue to be the case until new tenders are issued separately for recyclables collection and also organic waste.

In the near future local councils will have the ability to discuss a financial package with Authorized Waste Packaging Schemes. In turn the Local Council would then issue tenders for collection of recyclables. It is to be noted that the initiative of the ATTARD Local Council is highly commendable and we fully support this initiative. The collection of recyclables in the Maltese Islands has to continue to increase from month to month and waste carriers, local councils together with the support of government, will make sure that no stone is left unturned to make sure this is a successful diversion program from using landfills.

 

In spite of the fall in the price of wheat on the interest national market from February peak pressures caused by drought, storms and flooding caused by global warming continue to reduce world harvests of staples such as rice below expectations and food prices are expected to soar even higher than at present.

 

As more land is turned over to producing biofuels, wheat prices leap again. Higher oil costs flow through to transport costs in farming and transporting food.

Malta imports more than 75% of all its food needs. Consumers find they are spending far more of their disposable income on basic foodstuffs. In less developed parts of the world, millions face real hunger as staples are priced beyond their reach. Experts believe the age of cheap food is ending  and no existing technical fixes to deal with the problem exist.

 

The latest Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) shows Malta's inflation running at a very high 4.1 %.

It's risible how the media swallows the bait of NSO's silly emphasis that our inflation increase is among the lowest. Wow betides if it were among the highest as we would have surpassed the 5% mark, facing a crisis.

 

4.1% may be indicative of stagflation. The economy is not growing in real terms, sales are down and therefore there is no demand-pull inflation caused by too much money chasing too few things; on the property front it is also negative inflation. So the cause of inflation is cost push.

Business is suffering as entrepreneurs are biting the bullet and mitigating increased costs by sacrificing operational surpluses. It is a double whammy that can't be suffered for too long; loss of profits and increased costs.

If you had the money it is not worth keeping it as the banks pay less than the rate of inflation. Yet many are not spending. It seems that they don't have it!

 

Island Capital Group, The New York-based investment banking company is creating its first marina project, called Yacht Haven, on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The project, scheduled to open later this year, will transform a derelict 1970s dock space into luxury condos, a hotel and 125,000 square feet of luxury retail space – along with enough dock space for 150 yachts of 400 feet or bigger. Island Capital Group also has teamed with Nakheel, a property development firm in Dubai, to build as many as 40,000 boat slips in new marinas throughout Dubai.

 

In Genoa, on the Italian Riveria, the Marina Genova Aeroporto is being constructed. Robert Inwards of Inwards Ltd. in Monaco, a project spokesman, said the new marina there will have more than 600 berths of as long as 250 feet in length and the town being developed nearby will have apartments, restaurants, stores and other yachting facilities.

On Madeira, the Portuguese island in the Atlantic, Marina Quinta do Lorde, which can accommodate yachts as long as 150 feet, is being completed.

The marina infrastructure in India (!) will be improved significantly over the next five years, according to local news reports. Both private and government money will fund coastal marina and inland boating infrastructure developments.

United Arab Emirates conglomerate Tameer have commenced expansion into North Africa with plans for a new project in Libya that comes at the cost 26 billion Libyan dinars ($20 billion). This will include the largest Marina development in North Africa.

In Tunisia Dubai company Emaar is building an AED 6.7 billion ($1.88 billion) Marina Al Qussor project on Tunisia's eastern coast in Sousse .This development will have tourist and residential accommodation, plus a large marina village at its centre.

Sicily and Cyprus are both developing new marinas. Sicily aims to have 10,000 berths by the year 2010 alone.

It is a known fact of life that the yachting tourist spends twenty times more (yes you are seeing right) than a normal tourist. If they winter their boats here, it is much more, besides the obvious fillip this will give to the marine services industry.

During summer, Malta is ideally placed as a rest stop for the many boats going to and coming from Greek waters into Italian waters, as well as boats going from Suez up to the French Riviera. During the off-season when the yachts are not cruising, they need to stop somewhere for repairs but it is difficult to find dockage and berths. Many existing facilities are inadequate to accommodate the mid to mega-yachts and demand for dockage has increased significantly. (Now that's an opportunity we are passing up to revamp our docks!)

And wither Malta? Here we are still fighting over festi, murtali and imagined sea life in the largely lifeless St. Paul's bay seabed. And in the meantime, tourism business is slowing down.

Without a doubt, we are lagging far far behind in this field. We have been discussing Marina developments in Malta for too long a time, with study after study being published. As long ago as 1992, the then Minister had declared Xemxija as the ideal site for another marina. MEPA agrees. Somehow, some people have managed to stop the Government in its tracks on this one. Who are these people? Environmentalists? Some powerful papa' or figlio di papa' who has ideas on another site? What right have they got to have it their own way, every time, to the detriment of the many?

Bugibba, Xemxija and St Paul's Bay, once the haven of the "lira Breakfast "and the cheap beer tourist, is dying. Many hotels have closed down, and the flats are empty.

A breakwater and Marina will revamp the economy of this place. It will push it up market. It will give shelter to the small but important local fishing fleet. A good Private – Government partnership can make the Saint Paul's Bay / Bugibba area as desirable as anywhere else. We have Birgu as a prime example on our doorstep. We can do this. We can do everything. We are Maltese!

I recently visited a Greek Marina development. It was obviously man made (in 1973), but you wouldn't be able to tell. Trees abounded and right inside the marina, amongst the boats, there was a pristine white beach. Children were swimming and learning to sail. And above it all flew the coveted Blue Flag. I couldn't believe my eyes. There were another two Blue Flag beaches on the outside arms of the Marina. If the Greeks, who in my opinion are rather disorganized, can do it, so what in God's name is preventing us?

Why are tree huggers keeping marina development from happening in St Paul's Bay and elsewhere in Malta? I am all for environment protection, but our fundamentalist anti-development breed of environmentalists is a sad but vociferous lot. I truly suspect that some people's motivation with the environment have more to do with that particular Maltese blight, envy, than anything else.

And what of the breakwater that will protect the whole of Sliema Creek?  Its construction was a prime condition for the development of Tigne point. Has someone "negotiated" it quietly away?

The Maltese people deserve nothing less than a breakwater here in return for the desecration of Dragut Point. This will allow safer berthing inside Sliema Creek itself. If that was part of the deal, then Government has the moral responsibility to make sure the developer constructs it!

We need shelter for Marinas to happen. There is not one single porticcuolo in Italy that does not have a breakwater similar to the one ion Mgarr built out of EU funds. If Government commits itself to just help with putting some EU funds to construct boulder-type breakwaters in some of our derelict bays, then private industry will make the rest happen.

We have a maritime heritage to live up to. Yachting tourism is here to stay, as boats become more affordable. Yachting in the Mediterranean is booming. And yes, Marina Development and environmental enhancement can complement each other!

Let's not wait for the proverbial fig to fall into our mouth on this one, shall we?