Author: Developers Think

The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry has renewed its Bronze Collaboration Agreement with PT Matic Environmental Services Ltd. For the second consecutive year, PT Matic will be paired with The Malta Chamber’s ‘Circular Economy Committee’ to provide leadership support to business on matters related to sustainability and resource management.

Ahead of the signing, Ms Marisa Xuereb, President of The Malta Chamber, noted that the continuation of this partnership reflects the essential work that has been carried out between both parties in the last year in exploring possibilities and future global economic scenarios with a view to forecast and advise on required strategies and resources.

“The role and work of the Malta Chamber centres around mobilising people and resources with a view to promoting a business environment which is conducive to the prosperity and wellbeing of its members and the Maltese people whilst advancing the islands as a worthy jurisdiction for trade, services and investment within the Mediterranean region, the European Union and the rest of the world,” noted The Chamber President.

Ing. Oliver Fenech, General Manager of PT Matic Environmental Services Ltd, said “it is with great pleasure that we renew our sponsorship with The Malta Chamber. We are pleased to have found in The Chamber, but also in the Circular Economy Committee therein, the right level of commitment and professionalism necessary to drive the transition towards a Circular Economy. Over the next year we thus look forward to continued efforts in submitting the right policy proposals and in leading initiatives that enable private enterprise to occupy a driving role in achieving circularity.”

The Circular Economy Committee is a horizontal policy committee set up to draw on the work of experts and Economic Groups to ensure that The Malta Chamber is centrally positioned to provide leadership in the country and to the business community on issues of environmental sustainability with the aim to help businesses reach their ambitions and objectives. The work carried out by this Committee has been greatly impactful especially during the pandemic.

The Bronze Collaboration Agreement was signed by Ms Marisa Xuereb and Mr Christopher Vassallo Cesareo as President and Deputy President of The Malta Chamber respectively, and Ing. Oliver Fenech as General Manager of PT Matic Environmental Services Ltd.

The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and the Malta Chamber of Construction Management signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at supporting the business and development of the construction industry.

“This agreement is a clear indication of our commitment to support the construction industry to become more professional. Construction managers will have a huge responsibility in the transformation of this sector and as Malta’s leading business representative body, The Malta Chamber will provide the required support to all players within this industry,” said The Chamber President Marisa Xuereb.

Ms Xuereb emphasised that The Malta Chamber is the ideal platform that provides the right mechanisms for a joint effort assisting entities in pushing their sector forward and making their voice heard in a meaningful way.

The President of the Malta Chamber of Construction Management (MCCM), Mr Jesmond Chetcuti highlighted the close collaboration between all interested and impacted stakeholders within the construction industry.

 

“The MCCM will be representing the various levels of construction management. MCCM is very pleased to have reached this agreement with the highly reputable Malta Chamber. This close collaboration will help to address issues of concerns and the finding of solutions,” said Mr Chetcuti.

In this context, the two entities shall seek to co-operate actively on matters of national economic policy with respect to the community of construction management, architecture and civil engineering and the upholding of business ethics while promoting best practices amongst members of both organizations, and the general-public.

Ms Mizzi is a Director at EMCS. She leads the funding consultancy services arm providing support to private, public, private and voluntary organisations in relation to the identification of the appropriate EU and local funding streams available for local organisations. She also provides consultancy services in relation to programming, management and evaluation of EU funding programmes. Before joining EMCS, Alison was engaged with the Public Administration for fourteen years. She mostly worked within the Managing Authority for Cohesion Policy and also formed part of the core team responsible from Government for the drafting of the 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 Cohesion Policy Programming Documents.

On her appointment as new MBB President Ms Mizzi commented, “I take on this new role with enthusiasm to keep building on what has been achieved so far and to keep working on bringing the EU closer to our business community. We remain committed to facilitate our businesses’ contribution towards the future of Europe, and to the formulation of new policies and regulatory frameworks to make them work for us where possible. At times it might not be clear as to how businesses can contribute towards this process, which very often is considered as daunting. This is where MBB comes in, by providing timely information on what is brewing at EU level whilst offering an opportunity to the business community to voice concerns from an early stage.”

The MBB thanks Mr Simon De Cesare who led the organisation for the past three years, for raising the profile of MBB and for bringing it closer to our businesses. Furthermore, the MBB thanks outgoing Directors Mr John A. Huber and Mr Anthony P. Tabone, who have relinquished their post, for their support and input over the past term.

The following is the new MBB Board for 2021-2024: Ms Alison Mizzi (President), Mr Simon De Cesare (Vice President), and Mr Richard Cleland, Mr Malcolm Jones, Mr Brian Muscat, Dr Marthese Portelli and Mr Sergio Vella as Directors.

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.