Single authority to regulate maritime, air links

The regulatory authorities responsible for civil aviation and maritime affairs are to be merged to form one authority, Communications and Competitiveness Minister Censu Galea said yesterday.

He told Parliament that much work remained to be done before this merger took place, but this was likely to be the last year in which Parliament considered the financial estimates of the Maritime Authority in their current form.

Mr Galea said the Malta Maritime Authority was playing a proactive role within the EU and in the wider shipping sector. It was making its own proposals, rather than simply reacting to what was on the table. The MMA's representative last November was also elected to the administration of the International Maritime Organisation.

He said Malta had insisted through the MMA that new ship safety measures should not be regional but applicable to ship registries worldwide, so as not to create unfair competition.

The Maltese registry - the second biggest in the EU - took maritime safety very seriously and the number of port state inspections had increased. A significant development over the past months was that Malta was taken off the black list of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding.

While Malta would continue to seek to enlarge its registry, that would not be done at the expense of safety. Indeed over the past few years the authority had de-registered ships or barred the registration of ships seen as posing a safety risk. As a result the size of the Maltese shipping register had declined over the past few years but a recovery had now started.

Given the size of the register - 4,100 ships with a total of 24.2 million tons - incidents at sea involving Maltese flagged ships were inevitable. Prompt action was taken every time by the Maltese registry to ascertain the causes. There were some occasions where Maltese flagged ships were found responsible for incidents, and actions were taken against those responsible. However it was important that the press did not apportion blame before investigations were concluded.

Turning to the cruise sector, Mr Galea said that the number of cruise passengers had risen by 10 per cent while the number of cruise ships had increased slightly, an indicator how the size of ships was growing.

In January 2006, the number of cruise passengers rose by 2,400 who came on the same number of ships as in January 2004.

The potential for growth in this sector remained positive.

In the yachting sector, the maritime authority was encouraging the private sector to invest in new yacht marinas with Xemxija and Marsascala earmarked this year for development and interest being shown in other areas.

His appeal was for Mepa not to unduly delay the green light for yacht marina development, while safeguarding the environment.

Mr Galea referred to cargo handling in Grand harbour saying six companies had submitted bids. One had dropped out but the remaining five now had a few weeks for talks so that in April decisions would start being taken so that a new operator could take over in July. This change would lead to new cargo handling methods and strong investment in equipment and practices.

Port reform, the minister stressed, should not be seen as a process to change operators, but to change practices. He hoped that reports that efforts were being made to discourage the port workers were not true. Port workers - all workers somehow connected with the port - should be among the players for change, acknowledging that current practices were antiquated. Greater efficiency would mean higher cargo volumes at lower costs, for the benefit of the national economy and the workers themselves.

Cargo volumes in the Mediterranean was expected to double in 20 years and Malta needed to be well placed to attract as much of the new business as possible.

In this context too the MMA was seeking to attract to Malta activity centres connected to the EU's Motorways of the Sea plans.

Turning to the Mgarr/Cirkewwa harbours projects, Mr Galea said the MMA was emphasising quality and efficiency, notably at Mgarr where space was at a premium. The designs for the Mgarr terminal was such to best meet projected needs without harming the environment.

The minister said the MMA was also investing, with EU help, in a vessel traffic monitoring system.