Category: Archive – 2015

Over 70% of Maltese Business Owners are family owned and employ about 40,000 people. From this 70% only a mere 30% of these businesses manage a successful transition to the second generation and less than 10% progress to the third.

The Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Business has launched a white  paper on the Family Business Act which seeks to provide this sector 

with the essential legal framework to allow business owners to pass their companies on to the next generation. Through the successful implementation of this legislation it will aim to reduce the risks of  transfers and will also provide better access to finance for family businesses. This legislation will also encourage companies to make the necessary plans for succession and initiate the interest of planning the process from the early stages of new business.

The Ministry also plans to provide legal advice and assistance from regulators to any family business owners that would require assistance in the case of transfers.

The white paper has also addressed main issues such as dependence on its owner and nepotism. On this note, the Honourable Chris Cardona explained that the act was not trying to ignore emotions but it will prioritise business practices. He continued to state that the act should be an enabler not a restriction as it is also part of an agenda to reduce bureaucracy.   

GRTU has been calling for such legislation which should seek to support and further family businesses particularly in the case of inter-generational transitions. GRTU shall be reviewing the white paper launched and welcomes contributions and concerns by its members in order to formulate its feedback on this document to ensure the best for family business.

 

GRTU deplores the direction taken by Government in the last Budget related to addressing Eco Contribution reform by changing this to excise duty for beers, wines and water.

GRTU has time and time again spoken against Eco Contribution as one of the worst pieces of legislation ever drafted. It is effectively a tax that only distorts

 market fairness and in no way favours the environment. GRTU was always against businesses paying their environmental dues twice – once in the form of eco tax and once to an authorised scheme that actually took care of their environmental obligations. We therefore requested Government to remove the Eco Contribution so that it would make sense for producers and importers to join an Authorised Scheme in respect to Packaging Waste. To ensure a fair and level playing field for the law abiding businesses, adequate enforcement would be put in place as well as adequate penalties and administrative fines that would discourage non-compliance.

This was somewhat achieved back in 2009 when authorised scheme members started becoming exempted from eco-contribution. Substituting Eco Contribution with Excise Tax clearly ignores any progress made and puts us 6 years backwards. Even though in a meeting held with the Ministry of Finance last Wednesday we were told that the excise tax is much less then Eco Contribution, this is nothing more than an additional tax or a so called double payment for the same service.

We have asked the Ministry of Finance to suspend this measure with immediate effect and discuss with stakeholders the way to eliminate completely the Eco Contribution Act as soon as possible. The constituted bodies were very clear that this year we did not want surprises and the Budget consultation period should be used specifically to discuss these issues prior to announcement in the Budget.

GRTU is bewildered that Government is seeking to discourage water consumption because it regards this as detrimental to the environment.

Importers and Producers already have a liability under The Packaging and Packaging Waste legislation in place and enforcing this EU Directive needs to be the only way forward.

The recent implementation of the WEEE Directive by Government just last September was well received by the business Community at large. GRTU expected Government to continue building and not throw all this progress down the drain.

Government needs to get its priorities straight.

The Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive like the WEEE Directive and like many others are there to stay. Producers in Malta need to be at par with their counterparts across the Community.

There is only one way to stop abuse – enforcement. Enforcement in this country has always been a farce. We have 60 police officers enforcing the Birds Directive and none to enforce the Packaging Waste Directive. We do not support free riders but we are strongly against Government always choosing the easy way out and having the law abiding businesses pay the price for the evaders just because Government refuses to enforce environmental legislation. 

GRTU is always open for discussions over this issue, and ready to provide solutions as we have done in the past. We must point out however that there was no kind of consultation on this issue and Social Partners are not there to discuss with them only when one feels like it. We either are always treated as partners or else we will have to go our different ways which is not healthy for anyone at the end.

We hope our call to suspend this measure with immediate effect does not fall on deaf ears.

 

 

 

The following are the presentations delivered during the conference “Malta’s Digital Economy Gap Analysis: Identify Your Business’ Next Step”.

• Digital Marketing: Are you using this to get ahead of your rivals? (presented by Marcel Mizzi, GRTU Malta Chamber of SMEs) http://bit.ly/1NMqzUk

 

• Are you aware of incentives and other support measures to SMEs? (Presented by Cain Grech, Malta Enterprise) files/Presentations/Malta_Enterprise_Presentation.pdf

 

• eCommerce in Malta- state of play (Presented by Denise Borda, Malta Communications Authority, MCA) (1) : files/Presentations/eCommerce_in_Malta_State_of_Play.pdf 

 

• Benefits to SMEs through a stronger digital economy SME Week 2015 (Presented by Emanuel Darmanin Malta Communications Authority, MCA (2) files/MCA.pdf

 

• Establishing your online presence opportunities, challenges and risks (Presented by Marvin Zammit (MITA), Victor Bugeja (IRD) , Josef Cachia (ETC), James Cauchi (ETC)) An applied example of e-Government Services: Facilitating taxation compliance & employment services online Malta Information Techonlogy Agency (MITA) Presentation: (1) files/Presentations/MITA.pdf (2) files/ETC.pdf

 

• Moving Business to the Cloud (Presented by Kevin Schembri, Microsoft) http://1drv.ms/1Px4bhf

GRTU has successfully held a conference earlier this week with a participation of around 200 small businesses and self-employed persons targeting Malta’s Digital Economy. This conference served as the ideal platform to retrieve practical feedback from businessesas to what challenges are hindering them for GRTU to consolidate recommendations to be presented to policy-makers in the coming weeks. The conference however also offered hands-on awareness-raising and training exercisefor the attendees to understand how they can make best use of the digital and online tools to maximise their business potential.

GRTU President Paul Abela opened the conference outlining how crucial this next step in business has become to effective competitiveness. Access to untapped market potential is key and needs to be achieved through equipping businesses with such tools. Addressing the SMEs present during the conference, Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness Jose’ Herrera said that the digital economy will not replace the business model but will enhance their efforts to achieve their targets. Economy Minister Chris Cardona was also present for the closing of the conference. This gave the opportunity for the workshop rapporteurs to explain to the plenary as well as to the Minister what was discussed and the main issues that emanated throughout the conference. Minister Cardona highlighted the potential that can be reached through opening shop doors to the online world reaching out more efficiently to the same pool of customers and tapping into a far broader reach at the same time.

The conference involved keynote speakers from MCA and MITA presented developments in Malta’s E-Commerce Strategy and the Digital Malta Strategy. Studies showed that more and more users were shifting online and using online shopping methods, but these were not respectively reflected in online shopping in Malta. GRTU Vice-President Marcel Mizzi gave a bird’s eye-view of digital marketing and how in practice businesses can widen their potential. Mizzi exposed the power of the digital marketing and online presence through its various forms such as social media, websites, search-engine optimisation, blogs, email and pay-per-clicks. He also explained how easy and cost-effective this can be for any time of SME.

The participants had the opportunity to participate in two workshop sessions. The first workshop was delivered by MCA Chief of Information and Development Steve Agius who focused on how to establish and maintain effective online presence. The second workshop was coordinated by Kevin Schembri from Microsoft who explained how practical apps and cloudcomputing are the way forward for businesses. Their efficiency and effectiveness can take business to a new level. A third workshop was delivered jointly by MITA, ETC and the Inland Revenue Department. This focused on e-Government serviceswith a practical workshop showing how employment, recruitment and taxation services can be undertaken online avoiding bureaucratic procedures and time-wasting for businesses. The fourth workshop was delivered by Cain Grech from Malta Enterprise and focused on the variety of incentives and support schemesavailable for both existing SMEs and start-ups.

Feedback from business owners attending the conference was extremely positive, with many describing it as an eye-opener and a practical exercise with take-home knowledge.GRTU shall be following up on this initiative by compiling a concise report to be developed into a document for recommendations which will in turn be presented to the government expecting action and initiatives to support businesses achieve further. GRTU has also outlined online commerce and digital tools as one of its flagship themes in its proposals for Budget 2016.

This initiative formed part of the Malta SME Week 2015. This conference has been brought together with the support of Malta Communications Authority , Malta Information Technology Agency and Malta Enterprise, together with the participation of the Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Businesses and the Parliamentary Secretariat for Economic Growth and Competitiveness.

 

 

 

Jiġi ffirmat ‘Service Level Agreement’ bejn il-Ministeru għall-Enerġija u s-Saħħa, il-GRTU u l-Kamra tal-Ispiżjara li qed jistipula l-livell ta’ servizz li jrid jingħata permezz tal-POYC. Dan il-ftehim se jkompli jevolvi u jagħti empowermentlill-ispiżjara u b’hekk inaqqas il-ħtieġa tal-amminstrazzjoni ċentrali min-naħa tal-Gvern. L-ispiżjara, wara diskussjonijiet, jibdew jamministraw huma l-istock tal-mediċini tagħhom u għalhekk ikun hemm aktar kontroll tal-mediċini biex tonqos il-ħela, tiżdied l-effiċjenza u l-mediċini –out-of-stock ikomplu jkunu kkontrollati

Il-ftehim li kien iffirmat illum se jwassal ukoll biex il-Memorandum of Understanding li kien iffirmat fl-2007, u li fuqu kienet ibbażata l-POYC, jiġi estiż sal-2019. Il-ftehim issa jaħseb ukoll biex l-ispiżjar iwassal il-mediċini għall-anzjani fi djarhom.

Għalhekk dan is-‘service level agreement’ huwa pass ieħor fis-sistema tal-POYC biex il-pazjent ikun fiċ-ċentru tas-servizz tas-saħħa, u li se jwassal biex tiżdied l-effiċjenza ta’ dan is-servizz. Il-POYC minnha nnifisha kienet pass tajjeb li ressqet lill-anzjani u lil dawk li huma intitolati għall-POYC, eqreb lejn l-ispiżjar tagħhom. Iżda kien jeħtieġ li nħarsu lejn is-servizz li seta’ jiġi mogħti lill-anzjani tagħna. Il-Gvern f’dawn l-aħħar sentejn ħadem fuq diversi prijoritajiet biex il-POYC tkun effiċjenti, jonqsu l-mediċini out-of-stock li llum humaanqas minn ħamsa u li servizz tal-POYC jqarreb aktar l-ispiżjar lejn l-anzjani fi djarhom.

Dan is-servizz se jibda fl-ewwel kwart tas-sena d-dieħla u se jkun offrut lill-anzjani ta’ 70 sena ‘l fuq u se jibda f’Raħal Ġdid u r-Rabat. Dan se jsir biex il-POYC flimkien mal-ispiżjara janalizzaw is-servizz offrut u jtejbu fejn ikun meħtieġ. Wara erba’ xhur dan is-servizz se jkun qed jiġi offrut f’aktar lokalitajiet.

Il-ftehim se jwassal biex l-ispiżjara jkabbru l-operat tagħhom u għalhekk il-Gvern se jkun qed joffri tax credits lill-ispiżeriji li huma parti mill-POYC biex jinvestu fl-infrastruttura u fir-riżors uman tagħhom.

Il-Gvern jemmen li l-ispiżjara tagħna, bil-pariri tagħhom jistgħu jgħinu biex il-pazjenti jsegwu aħjar l-istruzzjonijiet li jingħatawlhom bir-reqqa u biex jiġu individwati dawk il-pazjenti li għandhom bżonn tibdil fit-trattamenti tagħhom. Barra min hekk, permezz ta’ dan il-ftehim, se jkun hemm aktar użu razzjonali tal-medicini, biex titnaqqas il-ħela; fatt li jgħin biex il-Gvern ikollu aktar riżorsi biex ikompli jinvesti u jsaħħaħ il-qasam tas-saħħa. 

Dan il-ftehim qiegħed jissiġilla l-evoluzzjoni tas-sħubija li l-Kamra Tal-Ispiżjara u l-GRTU għandhom mal-Gvern fil-proviżjoni tas-servizzi farmaċewtiċi fil–komunità. Dan il-ftehim se jwassal biex verament il-pazjent ikun fiċ-ċentru tal-politika tas-saħħa ta’ pajjiżna. 

Il-Gvern jirringrazzja lill-GRTU, lill-Kamra Tal-Ispiżjara, lill-POYC u lil kull min kien involut biex dan il-ftehim jintlaħaq għall-ġid tal-pazjenti tagħna.

 

GRTU is proud to announce that it has been awarded close to a €100,000 to part-finance its project entitled ‘Enriching Malta’s SME and Self-Employed Representation in Practice’, under the European Social Fund.

The project aims at achieving headway in a short period of time on a number of priority issues such as the digital agenda by shifting Maltese enterprises online and increasing work life balance initiatives through the application of EU wide successful models to the local context.

Training and investment in skills is a main pillar in the project. A significant tranche of the funds will go towards further equipping the resources of the organization through internal training to be able to provide better SME and self-employed representation and services, as well as holding seminars and training programmes for SMEs to provide them with knowledge and skills to strengthen their business and competitiveness.

The project aims to achieve tangible results. GRTU will develop two policy papers drawn up through close consultation with business owners themselves in relation to increasing the take-up of digital strategies in companies and practical implementation of the budget measures.

Increasing and strengthening start-ups is another result the project seeks to achieve. This will be done through close cooperation and empowerment of start-up enterprises and young entrepreneurs. To achieve this aim GRTU will also be undertaking an outreach exercise in collaboration with MCAST by exposing students to the opportunities and realities of being an entrepreneur.

The first planned activity will consist of a dynamic information and consultation session entitled ‘Malta’s Digital economy Gap Analysis: Identify Your Business’ Next Step’. Through this activity GRTU seeks to help Maltese enterprises conquer their digital challenges through the provision of practical skills and guidance, identify problems and limitations that are holding them back and identify proposals to overcome these challenges.

The event will be held over a half day on Tuesday 13th October and was oversubscribed shortly following announcement. Further information may be found on http://bit.ly/1jcJCK3

The project is 85% covered by the European Social Fund. GRTU takes this opportunity to thank MEUSAC for its assistance and support at project planning stage. GRTU also commends the Ministry for European Affairs and the PPCD for their practical approach aimed at ensuring the full uptake of EU funds.

 

We would like to draw the attention to the upcoming commencement of the negotiations of a free trade agreement between the EU and Tunisia and sound out your views on these negotiations. The first round of the negotiations will be held in the second half of October. We would like to know what interests and opportunities businesses have in an agreement with Tunisia, also given its proximity to Malta.

In particular we would like to have some comments from interested businesses or businesses already active in Tunisia on what could be or interest or sensitive for your business. The agreement should include the following areas of negotiations:

• Tariffs on trade in industrial goods (import / export tariffs rates in Tunisia);
• Tariffs on trade in agricultural products (import / export tariff rates in Tunisia);
• Non-tariff and technical barriers (e.g. excessive or duplication of regulatory requirements for exporting to Tunisia);
•  Trade in services (general or by sector);
• Investment – intention of inward and outward FDI flows (general or specific to areas of interest).
• Other areas of interest, for example:
• Specific concerns  on intellectual property rights and protections;
• Trade facilitation (impediments in Tunisia making trade more difficult at the border);
• Domestic regulation (impeding trade in goods or services or setup of businesses there);
• Sanitary and phytosanitary issues (food and drink sectors).

 Kindly send any feedback on .

 

Social Partners in agreement

During a consultation meeting held with the opposition on the Budget proposals, the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, the Malta Employers Association and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin were in agreement that Government should address the issue of electricity costs in this Budget. This means that all the major social partners, with the only exception of the GWU, believe that concrete measures must be taken to address the current situation.

 

Opposition in agreement

The opposition also agreed with GRTU’s position that the 25% reduction was promised in a time different from the conditions we are living in today and therefore the reduction in the international prices of oil, the efficiencies of the BWSC plant and the cheap electricity rates of the interconnector should be regarded separately.

Dr Simon Busuttil said that the reduction requested by the GRTU is not only justified but obvious and apparent when one considers the figures that are publicly available. Dr Busuttil insisted that unfortunately with regards to other considerations one can only ask questions since the agreements are not public and there is lack of transparency.

GRTU reiterates its call for 30% reduction in electricity tariffs

GRTU President Paul Abela said that the GRTU had invited the Government to carry out its own technical assessment in order to see what reductions could be passed on to SMEs. He said that in calling for a 30% reduction the GRTU was being conservative and GRTU will be escalating its efforts in the coming days to see prices reduced.

Paul Abela said that he would have expected the Government to not simply be a guarantor to Electro Gas but partner up with the company. This is what happens in the private sector where the guarantor believes in the venture he is guaranteeing for.

 

As part of its pre-budget meetings GRTU met Minister for Transport Joe Mizzi since it has highlighted transport and parking as a main challenge that hindering business competitiveness.

GRTU President Paul Abela said that traffic and parking are two elements that are reducing productivity and are discouraging consumers from going to the shops. He said that the problem in localities such as Valletta and Sliema 

is in need of immediate action and requested incentives to increase the parking capacity and incentives for the private sector to offer solutions to the current problem.

Mr Abela also reiterated GRTU’s complaint that port charges will once again go up and this is making Maltese businesses uncompetitive. In reply James Piscopo, Chairman of Transport Malta assured GRTU that its complaints have not fallen on deaf ears. In fact he said that the full extent of the agreement with the private operator is being considered and analysed and a study is being conducted to assess how competitive are the Maltese ports in comparison with that of our neighbours and other countries in the Mediterranean and the EU.

In relation to transport the Minister said that a lot of effort is being done to increase the efficiency and reliability of the public transport system. He said that incentives targeting the private sector are also in the pipeline and welcomed GRTU’s proposal to incentivise companies to provide combined delivery system services. He also invited the GRTU to come forward with other private sector proposals that will alleviate the current traffic and parking problems and said that the Ministry will help these projects materialise and put in place the necessary incentives.

On the CVA, GRTU complained heavily that the system is a failure and needs a complete overhaul. The parking availabilities do not make sense. First and foremost the parking capacity has shrunk significantly and while residents are catered for two fold, other people coming into Valletta were very limited in their parking options. While the system is making money from people coming into Valletta no improvements in the parking and traffic situation in Valletta was made.

The Minister recognised the shortcomings of the CVA system and assured the GRTU that as a main stakeholder it will be consulted so that the system is improved. The revision should take place next year.