<i>Industry Today</i> out now

The FOI has just published the 48th issue of its journal Industry Today, which is rich in articles covering a variety of topics of interest to industry and the business community in general.

This issue focuses on the implications arising from the introduction of the product liability regulations. In fact, the editor's note, cover stories and sections of the interview, all focus on these regulations.

The two cover stories provide the reader with an explanation of the legislative terms of the recently transposed regulations and the implications for business operators, and provide the reader with the insurer's perspective on this particular legislation.

FOI executive Cecilia Vella conducted the regular Industry Today interview. This issue's interview was with the director-general of the Office for Fair Trading at the Consumer and Competition Division, Marcel Pizzuto.

Among the topics discussed, Mr Pizzuto explains the function and structure of the Consumer and Competition Division, as well as the important provisions, which the division is responsible for, including the enforcement of the Competition Act, the Consumer Affairs Act, the Trade Descriptions Act, Doorstep Contracts Act and the Product Safety Act.

Mr Pizzuto also refers to the product liability regulations transposed in the Consumer Affairs Act.

The journal's editorial, drawn up by FOI director-general Edwin Calleja, highlights the importance of consumer satisfaction as the key to industry's success, and discusses the implications on business operators arising from the implementation of the product liability and guarantees directives, which were transposed in the Consumer Affairs Act.

Mr Calleja urges business operators to start planning ahead for the time when these new conditions would be fully operational in Malta.

On a completely different note, FOI president Joe Zammit Tabona dedicates his message to the importance of Maltese businesses having a presence in Brussels. He outlines the milestones achieved in the creation and operations of the Malta Business Bureau, which is the joint venture of the FOI and the Malta Chamber of Commerce.

He explains how the Malta Business Foundation was formed and what are the functions of both the Brussels based office and the EU-help desk based in Malta, as well as how these offices can assist member companies of these two constituted bodies.

In addition to the regular FOI Activities section, the FOI dedicates an article to introducing the new members of the FOI Council - Anthony Diacono, Martin Galea, Gene Gretchen, David Mifsud and Anthony Tabone; while the federation devotes another article to its conference, entitled "Restructuring to Compete".

In this latter article, there is a summary of the six presentations delivered during the conference: four outlining the restructuring strategies being, or having been, adopted by Joinwell Ltd, Baxter Malta, Marsovin Group, and Blue Bell (Malta) Ltd; and the other two presentations explained the services being provided by the Institute for the Promotion of Small Enterprise (IPSE) and Bank of Valletta (BoV) plc to assist firms to restructure.

For this particular issue, the Malta Business Bureau Activities was dedicated to Dr Leonard Mizzi's speech during a workshop of the fifth Euro-Mediterranean Business Summit, held earlier this year. This workshop focused on the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements and the new WTO Round.

The journal also includes an article on business incubation by Ing. Ray Muscat, operations manager of the Kordin Business Incubation Centre; an article on the Malta Arbitration Centre, giving some useful comparisons between Litigation and Arbitration and also providing readers with a model arbitration clause; articles from two of the sponsoring partners of the federation, Go Mobile and Sea Malta Co. Ltd.; news from the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE); profiles of two FOI members, Camilleri & Cuschieri Consulting Engineers and EnviroTech Division of the AquaBioTech Group; and news from all the FOI sponsoring partners, Corinthia Hotels International, BoV plc, Go Mobile and Sea Malta Co. Ltd.

Readers wishing to acquire a copy of Industry Today can contact the FOI Secretariat on tel: 2123-4428, 2122-2074.