The Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise (CoCE) conference entitled 'Responsible Entrepreneurship' dealt with the particular aspect of corporate social responsibility. It will certainly succeed to regenerate the spirit of philanthropy which marked the better part of the Malta merchant community in the past 150 years.
During much of this time the CoCE had been entrusted to administer the charities established by Marchese Bugeja. The public should seek to monitor this activity.
Responsible entrepreneurship includes much more than a love of one's fellow men, and the succouring of distress. It includes the creation of a financial structure, which through venture capital promotion would generate economic activities, keeping away distress.
It was impossible for a four-hour conference to deal with all aspects of entrepreneurship, although it must be emphasised that in bygone days entrepreneurs associated with the CoCE have had a great part in building the National Bank of Malta, which was a great exercise in financial patriotism allied with a high sense of social responsibility.
The selling of the National Bank was not something which those pioneers of Malta's prosperity would have considered. It is the outstanding success of the Corinthia conference which has inspired this piece.
On that occasion I saw the corporate social responsibility aspect of entrepreneurship being analysed successfully, and that has filled me with a desire to see the seminal work of this conference brought to its logical conclusion by further seminars and conferences.
Practical results
Throughout the conference there was an enormous effort on the part of the principal speakers to marry theory with practical implementation. The speakers not only uttered their litany of good intentions, but also went to considerable pains to describe how far those good intentions had manifested themselves in concrete benefits to their staff and the country at large.
Numeracy was not absent in the speeches delivered, though we hope to see more of it in future conferences. Such statistical information should not be beyond what a half-day conference can adequately deal with.
The CoCE conference certainly introduced a new standard of transparent communication in Maltese corporate life. Many local companies would have previously considered the facts freely ventilated at the Corinthia as being confidential, and a suitable subject of corporate secrecy.
Not any more. There is evidence that new invigorating attitudes have become entrenched in our corporate life, which government corporations should seek to imitate to win back the credibility lost in the massive scandal-mongering circulating in the island in recent months - whether it is justified or not.
It is not the first time in its history that the CoCE stood out as an economic and social leader of the Maltese people. The last time this happened was in the Sixties when a contracting Malta economy was saved by entrepreneurs all associated with the CoCE. It was these men who gave Malta its tourism which is now probably a third of the Maltese economy.
Transparency
If I were to chose a phrase with which to describe the CoCE conference, it is that this was first of all an exercise in transparent entrepreneurship such as would raise the morale of employees and invite them to higher levels of productivity through voluntary participation in the economic process.
Before I embark on illustrating in some detail the character of the conference I appeal to Malta's public corporations to imitate this new attitude of transparency successfully experimented by the CoCE, and come out with their problems publicly.
The height of transparent communication in the conference was reached by Winston J. Zahra, director of operations of the Island Hotels Group. His talk was delivered with a restrained eloquence, which made it pleasant for the audience to follow details of the implementation of corporate responsibility in his company.
It stood in marked contrast to the talk, equally brilliant, but for very different reasons, of the chairman of Sea Malta, Marlene Mizzi. It was evident from her talk that she had researched the subject of corporate responsibility in some detail.
She brightly introduced it, enriching it by reference to an important survey which by itself ought to be the subject of an explorative seminar. Her job was that of an introducer and she performed very well.
One could not however be disappointed that such abilities as Sea Malta's chairman is obviously supplied with should not have been better employed in analysing, on the same lines of the Zahra talk, the public corporation she leads.
I hope to see her leading an investigative conference on corporate social responsibility in the public sector in the near future. That would be the day when taxpayers would see somebody fighting for the sake of the integrity of their money in much the same way as our entrepreneurs fight to protect their monies with the help of the CoCE.
Ms Mizzi could be the leader to introduce what was achieved in the private sector into the public sector. The CoCE conference has demonstrated beyond doubt that she is capable of operating within the public and private sectors.
Voluntary endeavour
A major idea which was explored continuously throughout the conference was the voluntary nature of corporate social responsibility. This conception was first presented to the conference by Tom Dodd of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enterprise.
It must be admitted that the Dodd talk was a slight disappointment. He should have realised that he did not step out of nowhere but from the Brussels office of the EU, which at present is undergoing a severe crisis of credibility.
Brussels needs Malta's help more than Malta needs that of Brussels, which can extend no significant help to Malta on such a matter of corporate social responsibility when outgoing Commission President Romano Prodi has just declared that the EU is significantly behind the United States on economic growth.
Such a gap in performance is to some extent due no doubt to the fact that Europe pays more than it should for expenses of corporate social responsibility. If the man from Brussels did not dare to tackle this point, we will try to make sure that the next EU speaker will not speak just about being good and generous but what it costs a country like Germany to have exemplary corporate social responsibility behaviour.
What Mr Dodd dared not say in his introductory talk is that according to the Kok report published in the Financial Times on October 26, Brussels has yet to draw up an action plan to reduce the administrative burden on companies.
This means that the views of Brussels on corporate social responsibility lack scientific vigour and are largely platitudinous. Brussels is not ill but it cannot be better than what its member states make it.
The Dodd talk gloried in the word "voluntary". Let the CoCE demonstrate, as it did to a large extent in its successful conference, how Malta's entrepreneurs have voluntarily forked out money to reach their aims of corporate social responsibility.
Pride of place
The talk of Louis A. Farrugia, group chief executive of Simonds Farsons Cisk, takes pride of place in the demonstration of his organisation's endeavour to be generous with all those who deal with it.
I would like to ask if there are any economic organisations in Malta which sink as much money in philanthropic activity as SFC, APS Bank not excepted. The SFC annual accounts were available at the conference and these have long shown the strains of an overly generous corporate social responsibility policy.
One has only to compare the SFC remuneration policy with that of our law courts to realise that a corporate social responsibility policy can go too far.
In speaking about the manifold corporate social responsibilities of SFC, Mr Farrugia failed to mention the activity within the bosom of the CoCE, which SFC undertook with regard to the administration of the Marchese Vincenzo Bugeja Trust. That great philanthropist had entrusted it to the CoCE as a demonstration of how close Malta's plutocracy was to the common people.
It was the equivalent of today's Ministry of Social Welfare. Mention of considerable voluntary charity activity was made throughout the conference, especially in the talks of Albert P. Mamo of Gasan Mamo Insurance Ltd, and of Ing. Sandro Pisani of Vodafone Malta Ltd. The details of these charities will receive appropriate publicity in the near future.
It would be impossible for Malta's entrepreneurs to imitate the voluntary social corporate responsibility activities which the great Marchese Bugeja demonstrated about 130 years ago. There were then in Malta no taxes to speak of, and so massive philanthropic enterprises were undertaken, such as those of Marchese Emmanuel Scicluna with regards to Fra Diego.
Both Mr Mamo and Ing. Pisani illustrated the extensive voluntary charitable work of their respective organisations and stressed that such activities would be more extensive had there been fiscal incentives.
What Government should care about as regards corporate social responsibility is that money should reach those who are really needy and not get lost in the labyrinths of bureaucracy and politicised financial blundering
The Corinthia venue
A final word about the Corinthia Palace venue - a silent participant in the conference, but which spoke volumes about the success of Malta's entrepreneurial class. This success had been achieved with the participation of the common Maltese people.
It was won over to the interests of capitalism by a policy of admirable responsible entrepreneurship, which the CoCE conference was seeking to regenerate in a systematic way.
The splendid hotel and luxurious art nouveau dining room hovered over the conference and the networking participants, and seemed to breathe a word of advice to this august assembly of Malta's plutocracy.
This imaginary advice resounded in my ears like a thunderclap, and I ask readers to forgive me if I try to unload on them a part of these feelings, which were not at all comfortable.
To my mind the Corinthia venue was a reminder that responsible entrepreneurship had a financial and human dimension, for there would never have been a Corinthia without the venture capital of the National Bank of Malta, the brilliance of the architects who designed it and the labourers who risked their lives on the job.
Corporate social responsibility embraces the entrepreneur and his professional support staff, the banks and the labouring masses.
Bank participation
Bank participation in the conference was extremely weak for HSBC was conspicuous by its absence. HSBC are a formidable part of the Maltese economy, and the bank they took over had a great sense of corporate social responsibility extending from its encouragement of entrepreneurship, through its leading participation of the Malta Development Fund, to its enrichment of Malta and Britain's heritage by its acquisition of the incomparable Turner watercolour - a fine work by one of Britain's greatest artists.
HSBC is the strategic partner of the Maltese economy, its greatness and profitability imposes on it equally great responsibilities. The duties of corporate social responsibility must not only be performed, but must be seen to be performed, and this is not to be done by keeping away from a strategically important conference.
John Azzopardi Vella has been the promoter of the Malta Development Fund and was adviser to S & P.