The Chamber of Commerce has called for lower VAT rates on tourism and hospitality and an extension of the wage supplement scheme as part of recommendations for post-COVID-19 economic recovery.
It outlined its vision for the next 24 months in a detailed presentation based on feedback received through 12 economic clusters comprising 150 business leaders.
Joshua Zammit who chaired the think tank that presided the clusters said that the Chamber was expecting a gradual economic recovery with fluctuations due to occasional spikes of the pandemic.
Projections are being made on the assumption that there will be no other external shocks in the next two years and that a vaccine will be available within this time frame.
Asked by Times of Malta if the Maltese economy could sustain a second wave of the pandemic, Chamber President David Xuereb said a second wave was to be expected.
“The issue is how to manage and handle the situation as well as the height of the waves which are to be expected until a vaccine is available,” he said.
President George Vella who delivered the keynote address expressed concern that sectors of the population were translating the economic impact of the pandemic into racial abuse and hate speech against migrants and foreigners.
Biggest concern from the financial service industry
Malcolm Booker from the financial services industry, gave what was arguably the most daunting picture of the situation.
“The fact that there is a debate on whether Malta will be passing the Moneyval assessment is significant in itself. Malta should have never been in such a situation,” he said.
Booker added that the Moneyval test would be just one step in the journey to restore Malta’s reputation.
“Recommendations being proposed, are of no significance unless Malta’s reputation is tackled swiftly and decisively,” he said.
In this respect he called for better e-government services, more incentives for innovation, better support to foreign expertise and incentives for fintech start-ups.
The other recommendations made by the various sectoral representatives were to reduce VAT to 7 per cent on the hospitality and tourism sector, promote Malta as a safe destination and extend the wage supplement scheme in tourism until a vaccine is available.
Calls were also made for better regulation and harmonisation of construction laws and more resources to the Building and Construction Authority.
Operators in the retail sector said the government should change rent laws to cater for exceptional situations like that brought about by the pandemic. They insisted in Valletta, business had gone down by 70 per cent as prior to the outbreak they had also been affected by the demonstrations held at the end of last year. Retailers are insisting that shop owners should be given some breathing space as their level of revenue cannot sustain the rent payments.