Amidst a very turbulent international climate, the Maltese economy continues to experience prosperity. On a further positive note, the manufacturing sector has also displayed a cautiously positive performance in the first half of this year following a prolonged period of discouraging performances.
Here, it is pertinent to underline that Malta’s manufacturing industry continues to contribute 9.4 per cent of the country’s total value added and directly provides over 25,000 jobs with potential to grow significantly. Presently, manufacturing operations employ one in every five people in the private sector without taking into consideration the substantial number of jobs generated in other sectors providing various inputs and services to the local manufacturing industry.
Against the backdrop of rapid growth spurts in other sectors of the economy such as iGaming, tourism and the financial services, the manufacturing industry has sometimes been taken for granted, resulting in a gradual decline in its share of the total economy over recent years. For this reason, the Malta Chamber’s Manufacturing Economic Group continually endeavours to advocate the advent of an industrial renaissance, as proposed at European level by the European Commission and developed at a local level in the Chamber’s An industrial policy for Malta document.
Such a renaissance is, first and foremost, dependent on a steady flow of investment which, in turn, is reliant on the continued attractiveness of the sector. Such attractiveness is based on a number of factors, such as the competitive cost of resources, a favourable political and economic framework as well as the physical state and appearance of industrial areas and their infrastructure. Unfortunately, the latter factor is often overlooked, as is evidenced by the state of the public areas in most of the country’s industrial areas.
We need to more assertively drive towards a cleaner and upgraded working environment within industry
With an aim to upgrade Malta’s industrial estates to the standards observable in business parks located in Britain and Germany, two European economies synonymous with unparalleled standards in manufacturing, the Malta Chamber’s Manufacturing Economic Group together with the tenant associations of the five largest industrial estates in Malta, negotiated and signed a memorandum of understanding with the government’s Malta Industrial Parks Ltd.
The MOU, signed last May, establishes a process to decentralise the responsibilities of upkeep and management of the industrial estates and shift them from MIP to the respective tenant associations. This agreement transfers the role of utilisation and application of MIP budgets allocated for maintenance and upgrading of industrial estates to operators on the ground who have invested in the industrial estate. Such investors have every intention to ensure the surrounding infrastructure is well embellished and serves as an attraction for new clients and investors, apart from, of course, their workforce.
As the annual Budget approaches – Budget Day is set for October 17 – the government must ensure that adequate funds are allocated to MIP for the purpose of funding the tenant associations under the signed MOU. Concurrently, the Chamber calls on all industrial estate tenants to actively form part of and contribute to the efforts of the tenant associations.
The Chamber also urges MIP to assertively deal with situations surrounding disputed and vacant factory spaces to ensure they are made available and put to productive use and to offer its full commitment to support the tenant associations in their efforts to bring the estates up to the international standards expected by all existing and potential investors.
The effective and timely implementation to upgrade and manage the industrial estates will simultaneously serve to attract higher flows of human resources, which manufacturing industry badly needs. The sector is constantly advancing to higher levels of sophistication and value added, thus requiring people from a variety of areas with a plethora of skills and levels of education. This starkly contrasts with the public perception that industry offers less lucrative jobs
We need to more assertively drive towards a cleaner and upgraded working environment within industry, moving more towards attractive industrial parks as opposed to rudimentary industrial estates.
With the collective efforts of the Malta Chamber’s Manufacturing Economic Group, the various industrial estate tenant associations, MIP and Malta Enterprise along with the essential financial support from the government, one can more effectively achieve that much desired quantum and quality leap for manufacturing industry to continue to move forward.
Norman Aquilina is chairman, Manufacturing Economic Group, Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.