The past year has been really challenging for all of us. As we battled the COVID-19 pandemic, we faced unprecedented challenges that affected the way we run our businesses. It also brought havoc to our business plans and we had to re-align our priorities to new realities.
Nevertheless, I never doubted our ability to bounce back. This was a rare occasion where my age, more graciously referred to experience, became my ally. Succumbing was never an option – we moved on and faced the challenges head-on with enthusiasm, tenacity and willingness to work together and succeed. This, succinctly, defines our first anniversary at the Foundation for Transport.
As the chairman and CEO of Transport Malta, I am well aware of the difficulties all stakeholders within the transport industry have been facing for many years. We needed to act swiftly but wisely. The establishment of the Foundation for Transport on November 27, 2020 was an important milestone in our long journey towards building the necessary synergies needed to reach unchartered territories in this sector. The Foundation is the vehicle that hones partnerships, sources innovative ways of collaborations, and taps opportunities that for many years were overlooked. It also actively manages collaboration between industry players to oversee our transition to new technologies. The establishment of the Foundation, which I have been chairing for the past year, was surely a timely initiative that signified an important breakthrough in the local transport industry.
My long-term vision for the Foundation is to steer the industry towards becoming an active and integral part of the industry-centric mechanism that enables Malta and Gozo to be part of and benefit from EU’s innovation programmes for transport. This will instigate new business ideas and source untapped, wide-ranging solutions to reskill and upskill human resources.
This holistic approach enables the Foundation to act together and cooperate within national policies framework. The setting up of such a wide-ranging regulator has highlighted the need that connectivity and mobility need to be tackled holistically to further develop positive business partnerships with all the industry players. The Foundation’s board meets regularly and during our first year, I have chaired eight board meetings during which discussions were always dynamic, forward-looking and primarily focused on enabling innovation, instigate new business ideas, develop new jobs and embrace change. The co-founders give width and depth to the arguments brought forward, whilst solutions stem from ideas put forward from different but complementary perspectives.
The five co-founders include Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology, Transport Malta, Malta Enterprise, Malta Chamber of SMEs and the Malta Employers’ Association. This set-up offers a unified perspective for the industry itself whilst bracing in the transport regulator, the government agency responsible for incentives and the promotion of foreign direct investment, startups, and educational institutions.
The transport industry is becoming an everchanging and dynamic industry and the Foundation for Transport is positioned to partner with various stakeholders, both local and foreign, to deliver tangible results through selective specific targeted pilot projects primarily to accelerate the adoption of greener technologies to ultimately reach targets aims of the Government of Malta.
By staying cohesive and interconnected, the Foundation for Transport managed to generate in a very short period of time, synergies not only with the co-founders but also with a myriad of other stakeholders. We also aim to become an active player in national awareness campaigns, both at a national and regional levels to inform and educate businesses within our community. We are all hands-on deck to keep up the good work done so far and to make the Foundation a sound platform for the transport industry for the years to come.
Joseph Bugeja is Transport Malta Chairman and CEO