New Bill slashes public entities' onus on commercial sectors

The Malta Transport (Regulatory) Authority Bill showed the government's commitment to decrease the administrative onus of public entities on commercial sectors, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Austin Gatt told Parliament yesterday.

Introducing the Bill providing for the establishment of an authority responsible for land, sea and air transport, he said the Malta Maritime Authority, the Malta Freeport Corporation, the Malta Transport Authority and the Department of Civil Aviation were developed under separate but similar legislation regulating the different sectors, but these were not integrated.

The Department of Civil Aviation needed to be more dynamic and develop to face modern challenges because the government aimed to make Malta a European centre for the registration of air transport. Malta had to attract commercial and private aviation companies as these were becoming more important in the European business sector.

The Bill proposed the setting up of the Malta Transport Regulatory Authority which would incorporate the powers and functions of the MMA, the ADT and the DCA. Some of the directors sitting on the new authority's board would also be the directors of the Malta Freeport Corporation. The government could not remove the corporation for legal reasons tied to the international bond which the corporation had still outstanding.

Dr Gatt said that all these entities formed part of his ministerial portfolio. It was easier to bring together these organisations under one authority than to coordinate them under one ministry. The "institutional memory" was a hindrance to register progress. A totally new structure was needed to integrate the three sectors and achieve homogeneous and coordinated development.

He said that the ministry had applications for offering an amphibian bus service. The taxi concept included land and sea transport together and one had to integrate the service.

The European Transport Council, of which Malta was a member, incorporated the three sectors. Policies on a European level referred to intermodal transport. Malta would still have policies for the various sectors, but the overall external policy was gaining importance.

Malta needed to have a voice at European level on the emissions issue. This was another reason why it was important to develop integrated transport policies that looked at the sector holistically.

After the energy sector, land vehicles were the second largest contributors to CO2 emissions amounting to around 18 per cent.

Dr Gatt said that one also had to consider CO2 emissions from aircraft and seacraft, adding that an integrated environmental policy for transport under one authority was needed.

One authority would lead to less bureaucracy and cut down on expenses. The specific functions would remain separate but other general functions such as IT, accounts, legal and customer care services could be integrated. Enforcement could also be integrated with more flexibility and less personnel.

Developing one entity would lead to the possibility of developing policies on intermodal transport and change the way that businessmen used transport.

He said a major challenge at present was the creation of the private aircraft register, increasing the number of operators who registered their aircraft locally. A substantial number of private aircraft had already been registered in Malta. A team of lawyers was working on a set of laws and advantageous incentives to attract private jet operators to Malta.

The professional 24-hour service that met ship owners' needs was the secret of the shipping sector's success. It was now up to the authority to offer a high-quality service, so that aircraft registration could really take off. Blueskies, the EU project aiming to reduce CO2 emissions by changing the air traffic control system, was a commercial opportunity for Malta to extend its flight information region, or at least increase its control over airspace, as ultimately whoever passed through would have to pay.

An integrated policy for the sector as a whole and better use of Maltese ports were the two challenges in the maritime sector, said Dr Gatt. Since the sea was such a crucial resource to Malta, it was important to take a holistic approach to safeguard it. The ports were a potentially powerful source of revenue, and a more balanced allocation of areas to the different operators was important. Deep-seated practices had to change, and challenges overcome, for regeneration of the areas.

Few could have imagined the Valletta Waterfront potential, but it had taken courage and vision, which is what the government had in mind in the projects of the Grand Harbour and Marsamxett.

Reforms in the last two transport sectors - taxis and buses - remained to be implemented. This was a major environmental challenge, as Malta faced major fines if it did nothing about some vehicles long past their sell-by dates.

The idea was to have a law which grafted the three entities on each other, he said. There were no original clauses, save for those that dealt with policy. The Bill created the concept of directorates, which could be taken over by managing authorities, but the other structures were practically identical.

The government noted that it was important to understand that while there was a lot to learn from the ADT and the MMA, these had been created years ago and were not adequate for today. With the integration of the DCA it would become truly a structure to be proud of.