Labour launches business forum

Top criminal lawyer Emmanuel Mallia has accepted his first official role within the Labour Party as part of a business forum launched yesterday.

It will be chaired by former Sea Malta chairman and entrepreneur Marlene Mizzi and its motto is: We Mean Business.

“She is the woman who got the highest number of votes in Malta’s political history,” Labour leader Joseph Muscat said, introducing Ms Mizzi as a former MEP candidate, who got very close to being elected during the last election.

The business forum will involve economists John Cassar White and Joe Vella Bonnici, former Maltacom CEO Stephen Muscat and businessman Paul Vella.

This “core group” will hold regular meetings with business institutions like the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, the Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprise – GRTU and the Malta Employers’ Association.

But it will also organise activities for all kinds of businessmen, with a special emphasis on small and medium sized firms.

“This will not be an exclusive group,” Dr Muscat assured, adding he intended to break down the perception that the PL was antagonistic to employers.

Ms Mizzi explained that the term ħaddiema (workers), traditionally associated with the party, was not restricted to those who were employed but included everyone who performed an activity to earn a living.

“The Labour Party is more inclusive than ever. We have recognised the need to appeal to the self-employed and employers... because the country needs everyone to move forward,” she said.

The aim of the forum is to keep the party’s ears to the ground when it comes to the business community and to help draw up policies and solve problems, such as how to cut bureaucracy.

“This way, we hope everyone will be comfortable, like I am, with Labour being in government, because the policies and structures will be in place, and created with the support of those directly involved,” Ms Mizzi added.

Labour’s spokesman on the economy and small businesses, Gavin Gulia, said the party had for years shown it gave importance to small businesses.

The 1996 Labour government had appointed him as Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business but even though the following Nationalist Party government kept this role, it was removed after the departure of Edwin Vassallo.