The self-management concept

Over the past weeks we have heard various comments and criticism directed towards Malta Enterprise - now responsible for industrial estates - regarding the upkeep of and cleanliness (or lack of it) in industrial estates.

The level of maintenance of industrial estates is very important not only for Malta Enterprise to be able to attract more foreign investment but also for the users of the industrial estates themselves - the tenants - to make the area they use as an intrinsic component of their efforts to enhance their business.

So far as Malta Enterprise is concerned, we have already read various statements by the chairman, Joe Zammit Tabona, who said that ME will be funding some of the efforts - minimising the expenses incurred by tenants' associations of various industrial estates - in order to assist in the upkeep of these areas.

As chairman of the Mosta Technopark Tenants' Association I cannot but welcome such a public commitment as, up to now, after more than two years since MTTA has taken over the administration and management of the Mosta Technopark, no government entity (MDC or Malta Enterprise) ever gave us any funds and we had to take care of it of our own accord.

In fact, I assure Mr Zammit Tabona that the next MTTA committee meeting will be discussing his statement and will be analysing the possibility of submitting proposals for projects which can be funded by Malta Enterprise. We want money for particular projects, not open cheques. After all, these are public funds and we want to be made accountable on how these are spent. But the authorities are only one side of the issue of how industrial estates are kept.

As I said before, it is also in the interest of those who use the industrial estate every day to make sure that their environs are clean and organised. I cannot but condemn statements by certain industrialists who complain that there is trash in their estate when it is clear that it is they who have put that trash there in the first place. This is the status quo attitude of blaming the authorities and expecting them to come up with solutions, when we contribute to the problem.

It is up to tenants to organise themselves in a way that their waste is disposed of in an organised and responsible way. And this goes for all areas of operations of an industrial estate, it being parking and traffic management or security and access control.

Ultimately it is all about attitudes - the attitudes we take towards our area. If we keep on thinking that we're only responsible for our factory and offices, we cannot expect others to do our job.

At the Mosta Technopark, with a small input from all tenants, we have succeeded in showing everyone that the self-management concept for industrial estates works.

Our tenants are convinced that the investment we're doing in the Technopark is a marketing tool for all of us to use in our business ventures in Malta and abroad. In fact, only last year, we experienced a 20 per cent increase in overall employment at the park.

The responsibility of managing our own industrial area brought about a sense of pride and ownership. That is why we are very proud that the Mosta Technopark - our home - is the best-kept industrial area in Malta. This did not happen by chance. We - the tenants - made a plan and we stuck to it. It's up to the tenants in each and every industrial estate to make this happen.