Just when the Finance Minister has gone through a marathon exercise to explain in detail the Budget for next year, seemingly bending over backwards to impress with an array of measures meant to help out business and industry, the president of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry has come out complaining the authorities are failing to fully understand the implications and requirements of competitiveness.

Now this is a serious charge considering the efforts the government says it is making in the drive to make the island more competitive, particularly in such difficult times as the present. The chamber’s president, Helga Ellul, added another telling remark to her main complaint. The local business environment, she said, was not “friendly” enough.

Quite naturally, she must have good reason for expressing such views. The chamber may not be altogether pleased with the business environment but, though it is, of course, right in bringing up the difficulties that exist in the way for business and industry to move on, at the same time it looks that the island has, in fact, made an improvement insofar as competitiveness is concerned. In fact, according to the latest World Economic Forum’s Competitive Index 2010-2011, Malta has moved up two places, up to the 50th position worldwide. So, at least, the situation does not seem to be regressing.

The chamber would like to see greater labour flexibility, allowing companies, for instance, to call in their employees on extended hours to work on orders or projects and to grant them reduced hours when workloads are lighter. It argues that new services coming to Malta are very project based and such flexibility is, therefore, ideal. A couple of international companies operating in Malta had already adopted the system. “We are a small country and flexibility should be one of our man drivers.” The chamber welcomes the increased availability of EU funding and support to local business but it feels little has been done to streamline procedures and small businesses were put off by the bureaucracy.

The lack of established timeframes to take certain initiatives was also harming business. In this context, the delay in the introduction of the micro-credit scheme is a case in point.

The chamber is, of course, not alone in complaining about excessive bureaucracy. In fact, this has also been confirmed in a business survey published together with the World Economic Forum’s Competitive Index. The survey found that one of the most problematic factors for doing business in Malta was inefficient government bureaucracy. The list of the other problematic factors includes an inadequate supply of infrastructure, tax rates, an inadequately educated workforce, access to financing, inflation, restrictive labour regulations, tax regulations and poor work ethic in the national labour force. It is quite a long list.

Besides excessive bureaucracy, which hits both large and small firms, the piling up of charges also greatly irritates businesses as it adds to their costs, making it increasingly difficult for them to compete. It would seem the chamber is particularly disappointed because months of consultation ultimately had little influence on the government’s final Budget document.

“The minister must work hand-in-hand with stakeholders if the economy is to grow. If the authorities are not in tune with business, we will not move forward.” This is wise advice. Now that the presentation of the Budget is over, the government should return to the table, as suggested by the chamber, to continue discussing the business environment.