Consuls see Malta's potential

Malta should take advantage of its facilities for the film industry and attract feature films and commercials, the honorary consul of Malta to Antwerp, Belgium said yesterday.

Paul Cools, a lawyer by profession, said that watching Gladiator, which was shot in Malta, he realised what a lot of potential the country had with its Mediterranean Film Studios in Rinella.

Mr Cools is one of about 90 consuls representing Malta in 49 countries, who are here for a three-day conference organised by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. They visited the SmartCity project and yesterday held one-to-one meetings with business representatives.

They also listened to presentations by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, Transport Minister Austin Gatt and Malta Enterprise chairman Alan Camilleri, among others.

Mr Cools said Malta has potential in the tourism and manufacturing industry but felt that the film industry could do much better.

"Gladiator and other important movies were filmed here so it must be that the film studios are doing a good job. We can improve a lot because when you get film crews over here, people spend a lot on the island. I come from a city in the heart of Europe where there is the European Film Commission and I promote Malta as a venue to film movies, features and commercials," he said.

MFS boasts two large exterior water tanks - among the largest in the world - situated along the coast and therefore benefitting from a natural horizon.

Turning to the tourism industry, Mr Cools said services provided to tourists should also be improved. These included buses and taxis.

"Many tourists find the bus and taxi drivers quite rude. When you go to a city and you are ripped off by a taxi driver, this gives the country such a bad reputation, even though they would have been offered the sun and the sea. The bus and taxi drivers in Malta need training in order to improve the level of service," he said.

Asked about his opinion on low-cost carriers bringing tourists to Malta, Mr Cools said that, as a small country, it would be unwise for Malta to focus solely on budget travel. "We want more high class tourists who spend much more money here and appreciate our island and our culture," he said.

He said he continuously promoted Malta as a destination for business and incentive travel and was faced by competition from Spain, Portugal, Slovenia and Croatia. "Air Malta flights are quite costly to come here. I paid more than €300 return to come here and we are in March, which is not high season. This is something that has to improve. For me, Air Malta does not necessarily have to make a high margin of profit when bringing people to Malta but should make its profit when transporting people out of Malta," he said. Paul Galea, Malta's honorary consul to Malaysia, who is Maltese but has been living in the South-East Asian island for 12 years, said his primary objective was trying to improve trade between the two countries. He is also a director of the EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce.

Malta, he said, could easily become a base for the distribution of rare, exotic fruits to Europe and Northern African countries. He said people in Malta did not know Malaysia and people in Malaysia did not know much about Malta. However, the volume of trade between the two countries, although limited, was more than that with other EU countries.

There were a lot of opportunities in Malaysia, he said, including electronics, furniture and palm oil.