Some 25 Maltese companies which have invested in Libya have received government assistance under various forms to help them while the crisis persists, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi told parliament this evening.
He said that so far, some 80 companies have filed details with Malta Enterprise in response to a call for such information from companies which might need assistance.
Speaking in a debate on the situation in Libya as it affects Malta, Dr Gonzi said government assistance included ways to ease cash flow problems and assistance for market diversification, particularly for those companies which had depended on Libya export orders.
Dr Gonzi said he was pleased to note that Maltese employers had, in their vast majority, felt morally obliged to retain the Maltese workers who used to work in Libya. He acknowledged, however, that this situation may change if the crisis continued, and the government would seek to stay ahead of the curve as the situation developed.
The ETC, he said, was seeking individual solutions for workers, particularly the self employed, who lost their job amid the upheaval.
Earlier in the debate, Opposition MP Karmenu Vella said the Opposition was proposing the setting up of an inter-parliamentary committee to discuss how Maltese businesses in Libya could be helped through the current crisis while retaining their workers. The committee could include organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce.
He said the Opposition was not calling for bail outs, but assistance to enable Maltese companies to survive the crisis and retain their workers.
The committee could explore ways to help the Maltese investors, such as through concessions by the tax departments and the banks to ease their current financial problems.
Malta had found the means to help Ireland and Greece, and it should also find the means to help the Maltese companies, he said.
The government, he added, also needed to ensure that Maltese companies could do business when normality returned rather than leaving all the cake to the UK, Italian and French companies.
Mr Vella noted that the government had promised alternative employment for the 500 Air Malta workers. Would the same be possible for the 300 Maltese workers directly employed in Libya?
He also called on the government to explore solidarity assistance from the EU. Malta had said before the EU sanctions on Libya were imposed that it was given assurances. Would these assurances be translated into assistance?
Finance Minister Tonio Fenech said one of the biggest concerns was the situation at Medelec, which depended heavily on the Libyan market, and the government was seeking ways how this company could export to new markets.
Referring to Mr Vella's point on the Air Malta workers, Mr Fenech pointed out, however that the situation was different with regard to Libya. The government would help in every way it could, but one could not assume that the government would absorb all workers who were made unemployed.
He said various companies were being assisted through a delay of their provisional tax payments, without interest.
Mr Fenech said it appeared that 80 workers who used to work in Libya were currently registering for work, and the ETC was helping them through its employment aid programme as part of efforts to find them new jobs.
The minister said he had also had talks with the banks on ways of helping Maltese investors in Libya. It appeared, he said, that although Libya-Malta trade reached some €80 million, the export credit exposure was only some €3 million since it appeared that most Maltese exporters insisted on payment on delivery.
Mr Fenech said the government would seek tailored solutions for companies in difficulty but the government could not use taxpayers' money to assume business risks. Assistance, therefore need not necessarily be financial. He recalled at in the economic crisis, the government did not simply give money to companies in difficulty, but ensured that they used the assistance to diversify their markets or output, thus ensuring sustainability.
He said that while income tax and VAT payments may be postponed, that did not apply to the payments of social security since that belonged to the workers.