Two new members have been named to the Malta Business Bureau’s board of trustees.
Charles Brincat and Sergio Vella join the board which is to be led by John Huber as president, who has been nominated for a second consecutive year. George Micallef, Anthony Zahra and Anton Borg have been re-confirmed.
The MBB thanked outgoing board nembers Tancred Tabone and Mario Spiteri for their contribution in helping to shape the recent restructuring and the business-development growth of the organisation.
Mr Huber explained the new board will continue to ensure that the organisation takes an increasingly pro-active approach to linking the EU policy-agenda with the local business community while striving to develop the MBB’s services further.
Mr Huber stressed there is a need for increased support for Maltese companies to be able to tap into public procurement opportunities in other EU member states.
“This need has prompted the MBB to launch a new service to alert Maltese businesses of procurement opportunities within the EU. The EU Tenders Alert service contains procurement tender information for projects of a certain market value for which competitive bidding is allowed by economic operators irrespective of their operational location within the EU-27 member states. The feedback by Maltese business on the launch of the new service has been very encouraging. They clearly see this service as being of value-added to their business,” Mr Huber explained.
The MBB has recently been informed that its LIFE+ project proposal has been recommended for co-financing by the European Commission. The project’s main objective will be to encourage behavioural change in businesses that will lead to increased adoption of best practices for water conservation.
Besides the launch of new services and the development of focused EU projects-bids, the Malta Business Bureau remains committed to carry out a series of impact assessment studies over the coming years.
Mr Brincat has an extensive career in the electronics manufacturing industry. He spent 27 years at ST Microelectronics where he was director of manufacturing. In 2008 he became general manager of Carlo Gavazzi Ltd.
Mr Vella has a 30-year career in manufacturing, having spent more than two decades as general manager at Baxtor Ltd. He is currently managing director of Actavis Ltd.