Month: May 2021

The Tourism Business Section within the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry welcomes the legal notice on the conditions to be imposed on persons travelling to and from Malta as it charts the way to open and facilitate travel safely.

The Legal Notice makes the requirement to present a negative PCR result prior to boarding. This brings Malta on similar lines to other countries. The Tourism Business Section believes that this is critical to provide reassurance for travellers and locals while facilitating travel in a meaningful way.

The Tourism Business Section representing a wide range of stakeholders in the travel and tourism industry, had urged the authorities to outline the way forward and ease restrictions on non-essential travel to reflect the remarkable progress of vaccination programmes in the EU. This call reflected the scientific advice that vaccination considerably helps to break the transmission chain of COVID-19.

Notwithstanding this important development, the Malta Chamber calls for continued vigilance in the context of the emergence of coronavirus variants. The Maltese authorities should continue limiting the risk of such variants of concern entering the Maltese islands and strict restrictions should remain in place.

Following a rigorous regulatory process that ensures the best medicinal product is made available on the market in accordance with EU GMP standards, ASG Pharma was the first licensed company to be licenced to produce Medical Cannabis in Malta, followed by ZenPharm. A third company Materia Ltd. is in the process of obtaining its license and has already received its EU GMP certification. These licences ensure that patients are receiving products originating from the scientific advancements in medical cannabis which are of the highest quality, the most secure, and effective on the market.

The Malta Chamber welcomes this achievement which emerged from the setting up of the Business Section on Medical Cannabis within the Chamber a year ago. The Executive Committee was relentless in discussing opportunities and ways to optimise the licensing process to make the sector a true success and competitive enough globally, thus arriving at the opportunity of exporting a gold standard medicinal product produced locally and effectively contributing to Malta’s GDP growth.

Discussions were held regularly with Hon. Dr. Miriam Dalli, Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable Mobility, Mr. Kurt Farrugia, CEO Malta Enterprise, Hon. Deo Debattista, Parliamentary Secretary for Consumer Protection and Public Cleansing and most importantly with Prof. Anthony Serracino Inglott, Chairman of the Malta Medicines Authority together with all their respective teams in order to make this happen.

The Malta Chamber welcomes this ground-breaking achievement and the priority given to this sector to ensure its competitiveness worldwide.

“Businesses are faced with ever increasing pressures and responsibilities to go green and to embark on this green journey, the partnership between private enterprise and government is not an option but a must,” said Marisa Xuereb, President of The Malta Chamber of Commerce Enterprise and Industry.

The President of the Malta Chamber was addressing attendees during the ‘Sustainable Enterprise Initiative’ organised by the Ministry for Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable Development. The Malta Chamber is supporting this initiative in identifying potential enterprises willing to consider investments in energy efficiency ad sustainability.

Ms Xuereb noted that before the pandemic hit, The Malta Chamber was proactive in drafting and presenting a new vision for Malta’s economy and beyond. “Through its Economic Vision 2020-2025, The Malta Chamber has called for ‘a smart, sustainable island’, in which we recognise that economic development must ultimately lead to an improved quality of life,” noted Xuereb.

“As Malta’s leading business organisation body, The Malta Chamber acknowledges that the green economy we all want to achieve requires that financial institutions and government entities put policy into practice and engage with the business community and stakeholders on an ongoing basis to continue identifying opportunities and overcoming problems together when they arise,” explained The Chamber President.

The President of the Chamber stressed on the importance of initiatives such as the ‘Sustainable Enterprise Initiative’ by providing private enterprises with consistent support towards this direction. “Businesses need to be able to invest with the knowledge that their long-term thinking and efforts will bear fruit – that a collective effort will lead to collective results, even if it is painful in the short term,” she continued.

The Sustainable Enterprise Initiative provided additional visibility to a number of options available for Maltese companies to support their investments in energy efficiency and sustainability-related projects by both government entities and local banks.

The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry welcomes the announcement that Malta is achieving herd immunity but warns that the pandemic is not yet behind us and we are still far off from business as usual. Many businesses, which played a critical role in achieving herd immunity, are still on survival mode and they can only thrive if there is certainty, visibility and consumer confidence.

The EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRP) lies squarely at the heart of this response. While 23 EU member states have already drafted, consulted and submitted their RRP plans for approval by the EU, Malta has not yet submitted its plans. The Malta Chamber believes that RRP is crucial for businesses to start planning on how to thrive instead of how to survive. No sector should be forgotten or left behind. Every job is important. Every sector is important.

While herd immunity will hopefully help infections to naturally taper off, the real test will most likely come in a few weeks time when Malta continues to lift its restrictions and fully reopen its borders. In this context, the Malta Chamber urges for cautious optimism and to remain vigilant. As Malta reopens, authorities must strengthen their existing enforcement measures and implement stricter border controls. Otherwise, the efforts of everyone including the businesses who stepped up and played a critical role in encouraging and supporting their employees to get vaccinated would be futile.

On Sunday, 23rd May, Mr Joseph R. Darmanin passed away. Mr Darmanin was President of the Malta Chamber in 1996 and 1997 having distinguished himself in several different posts over the years.

Mr Darmanin was a steadfast Chamber person whose father Frederick had also been a Chamber President. He continued to attend general meetings and Chamber receptions until very recently when his ill health prevented him from doing so. In 2019 he had addressed those present during the Eurochambres EU Parliament for Enterprise held at the Parliament Building in Valletta.

His business involvement mainly related to aviation. For many years he was GSA for Austrian Airlines and was also a Director of the Malta International Airport.

Mr Darmanin was a great promoter of EU membership and had founded the EU Steering Committee which had carried out studies on the Acquis Communitaire preparing the business community for EU membership and later also leading submissions on the EU Avis. He was the driving force behind the setting up in 1996 of the Malta Business Bureau in partnership with the Federation of Industry.

A gentleman of great style, Mr Darmanin, Skinny to his friends, cut a dashing figure. In 1988 and 1998 Mr Darmanin had been involved in both the Chamber’s 140th and 150th Anniversaries which had included conferences, magnificent balls, operatic concerts and beautiful exhibitions.

The President and Council send their condolences to Mr Darmanin’s family.

The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry welcomes the announcement on the second round of €100 stimulus vouchers which will inject a much-needed impetus into the economy. The vouchers come at a very critical time for businesses, especially for those working in the tourism industry.

The Malta Chamber has taken an active role in helping put industry on a recovery path and shape a more competitive post-Covid Malta and has repeatedly insisted that vaccination is key in being travel-ready. The Chamber commends the Maltese authorities for the faster-than expected vaccination rollout. The Chamber also welcomes the decision taken by EU member states to ease COVID-19 travel restrictions on non-EU visitors and to let in fully vaccinated tourists.

While the new round of vouchers and the vaccination programme will contribute towards Malta’s recovery, the Malta Chamber stresses on the importance of a well-thought out EU National Plan for Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRP). The Malta Chamber urges Government to communicate and consult with social partners on the RRP and its specific details. The Malta Chamber is disappointed that the information received so far on the RRP has been very sparse and disjointed. It is also disappointing to note that Malta remains one of the very few EU Member States which has not yet submitted its RRP plan to the European Commission. The business community needs to be informed without further delay and engaged in a meaningful way on the actions and investments which will be covered through these funds.

The Malta Chamber remains committed to contribute to an open, constructive and timely dialogue.