My vision is to build on the Chamber’s success stories and position it as a valued player and influencer in the business relationships between Malta and France, says Joseph Bugeja, President of the Maltese-French Chamber of Commerce.
The 32nd anniversary of the Maltese-French Chamber of Commerce denotes a significantly different commemoration to what we have been accustomed to in the previous years. In the current challenging circumstances, it gives me more pleasure than ever, as president of the Chamber, to contribute to this year’s edition of Focus France.
While we all acknowledge that 2020 has brought havoc in all our lives, we started this year with fresh hope and enthusiasm. We battled the COVID-19 pandemic with courage and faced the unprecedented challenges head-on. The pandemic has pushed our understanding of what binds us together as a nation and what is truly valuable for our society.
Shaken, yet resilient, our nation has focused its efforts on our innermost values of solidarity and unity. The welfare system our fore ancestors have proudly enshrined in our society’s legislation and character many years ago, came to the rescue for our bleeding nation.
Needless to say, the pandemic has severely impacted our accustomed way of living. It also negatively affected the way we do business locally and most importantly our members’ ability or rather inability to seek business development opportunities in foreign markets. Our Chamber’s normal operations and activities were also heavily impacted. We tried to assist, facilitate and when necessary, tried to contribute to ensure that our close community remained strong and prepared to rebound to this systemic shock. We also continued to be a dynamic and relevant Chamber that meets the needs of our members and strived to lead on key issues.
We started this year with fresh hope
Although, the circumstances laid bare our inability to connect with each other, a virtue which we have always taken for granted and the epitome of our Chamber’s existence, we maintained focus and continued to promote, facilitate commerce and networking between the Maltese and French business communities within the prevailing limitations.
We tried to adapt and partially make up for the vacuum created by the circumstances by utilising technology. However, socialising online is no substitute for socialising in person but merely a valuable complimentary tool to our natural way of interacting. In fact, our webinars provided an important loop in the relationship chain between our members. These webinars gave a very interesting insight on topics of interest for both French and Maltese businesses. Particularly, such interactions created a promotional platform for operators in the fields of electromobility, digital communication, collaborative software, and digital mobility to establish preliminary contacts and promote their solutions to the Maltese business community.
These webinars also enabled clusters and associations working in these areas to interlink with the Maltese community and exchange their best practises and experiences. Such interaction will strengthen and support the Maltese business community’s transition towards greener transportation systems and electro-mobility.
We also kept in contact with our members through our regular publication and distribution of our newsletters. When the circumstances permitted, our committee managed to organise several meetings that enabled the proper functioning and administration of our Chamber.
Our close relationship with the Ambassador of France in Malta and Business France was instrumental in making such meetings a success. Working together as team with French Embassy’s officers, our Chamber’s staff and Council members strived to create the ideal working environment for business from both countries to flourish. We want to enable them to maximise on bilateral trade opportunities between our two countries. We also look forward to the opening of new opportunities and continue to make our Chamber a force in the Franco-Maltese business landscape.
I look forward to the rest of year with immense optimism. My vision is to build on the Chamber’s success stories and position the Chamber as a valued player and influencer in the business relationships between Malta and France. I want to ensure we understand the needs and interests of our members and be dynamic and agile in anticipation of the changing business environment. France and French companies play a big role in our Maltese life, and we aim to replicate this for the Maltese companies that have interests in investing in France.
Our unique position in Malta is to further develop existing positive relationships with our government, influencers as well as relevant stakeholders and use such strengths to support further growth. I would like, with the help of the excellent team at our Chamber, to continue to make this access easy and to facilitate our members to business success. As we continue to grow as a Chamber, I would wish for us at the Chamber to continue to add more members and sponsors and appreciate each and everyone’s contribution as we continue to bring relevant topics, debates and matters to the fore.