Politicians were on Monday urged to stop comparing which political party had attracted the most overseas investment to Malta since most of such work is actually done by the private sector. 

Foreign direct investment was among the subjects discussed in a debate between Economy Minister Silvio Schembri and Nationalist Party candidate Ivan Bartolo. It was the fifth and final election debate organised by the Chamber of Commerce.

The event, which stretched for nearly two hours, also covered tourism, manufacturing, yachting, gaming, and financial services.

It was James Scicluna, who heads the chamber’s gaming sector, who stole the show when he urged the two politicians to stop competing over which party had attracted the most FDI to the island.  

It was time, Scicluna said, politicians stopped claiming ownership of this work, which is largely done by the local private sector, adding that making that sort of argument in a forum like the chamber of commerce was particularly out of place.  

Scicluna, who lectures gaming law at the University of Malta, intervened after Schembri and Bartolo had spent a lengthy portion of the debate arguing over whether it was the PN or Labour who had attracted more business to the country.  

Bartolo had challenged the PL minister to name which new economic sectors Labour had created while in office, prompting Schembri to start reading off a printed out list of companies that started operating in Malta post 2013.  

Bartolo retorted with a quip about Labour’s failure to deliver on its promise to turn Malta into a blockchain island.  

The Joseph Muscat administration had pushed hard on the idea that Malta should be an early adopter of so-called digital ledger technologies, pitching it as a potential golden-egg-laying goose for the island.  

Schembri said that statistics released in November showed that there were 23 virtual financial assets agents and 15 VFA service providers in Malta.   

“Whenever the PN mocked our work on this sector I always stayed silent,” Schembri said. 

Malta, he said, is home to operators like Socios who are world-famous, while in the sphere of video gaming, Malta hosts more than 30 companies with 300 employees. 

“We were doing this work while you were busy trying to get rid of [former PN leader] Adrian Delia,” Schembri barbed. 

Bartolo’s response was simple: is Malta a blockchain island? He asked. 

Sustainable Tourism 

Earlier during the debate the two politicians were asked for their views on Malta’s tourism product and how they would seek to make it more sustainable.  

While Schembri said he agreed with the need to promote sustainability in the island’s tourism product, he asked whether this would mean turning away from mass tourism. 

Whenever arrival numbers dip, he added, it is the industry itself that complains. 

On his part, Bartolo said the PN believes in being a facilitator and not a player or even a competitor in the tourism market. 

He agreed with the need to focus on quality tourism, but when pointedly asked whether he was in favour of capping arrivals, he said it would be “arrogant” of him to take a position without properly consulting. 

Schembri said a PL government would, in its first year, deliver a tourism plan that addresses the country’s needs, locality by locality.  

Bartolo, who has a background in IT, said it was time the authorities started to work on tourists’ digital experience. 

Their holiday, he said, started the minute they booked their trip to and stay on the island. 

“Digitalisation of this sector is transformational in terms of how the experience needs to be changed,” he said. 

Manufacturing and Malta’s reputation

The debate then moved on to the manufacturing sector, with much of the discussion circling around Malta’s international reputation and difficulties this presents businesses. 

For increased red tape, to problems attracting investors, Malta’s reputation as a greylisted tax haven is problematic, the debate heard.  

Schembri insisted that despite what other countries may argue, Malta is not a tax haven. He urged the private sector to communicate with the government when facing problems related to this, promising to intervene when he can.  

On Malta being deemed an untrustworthy financial jurisdiction, Schembri said greylisting had been a long time coming.  

Bartolo disagreed, saying that it was the actions of the last Labour government, and not the inaction of several administrations, which had seen Malta greylisted.  

The government, he said, needed to engage in an international “roadshow” to tour the globe and fix the island’s reputation.