The COVID-19 wage supplement scheme could lead to “laziness” if business reengineering plans that the Chamber of Commerce is pushing are not implemented in tandem, its outgoing president has warned.

Perit David Xuereb, whose two-year term at the helm of The Malta Chamber ends on Wednesday, said the government has not yet come out with serious proposals in this regard, despite promises to do so by the first quarter. 

The current partial lockdown has not helped to get the wheels in motion, and Xuereb said he was feeling “worried and impatient for the country to get onto this as soon as possible because it is the road to success.

“The wage subsidy would be a worthwhile investment if it results in the strong reengineering of our businesses. It is part one of the story… The first without the second would be a waste,” he insisted.

Although having championed it to help ailing businesses in the pandemic, Xuereb
maintained it could “make us lazy”.

Businesses are in shock, and while some will just wait for COVID-19 to go away, they had to realise “the pandemic is with us and will remain with us”.

Speaking about the need to live and work with the virus, Xuereb said he could not even be certain of a post-COVID-19 era at this point.

But other disruptors – not just the pandemic – could be opportunities if businesses redesigned the way they worked. 

Xuereb highlighted the suffering and stretching of employer resources to keep things together throughout the pandemic, adding that the Chamber is “always weary of when those strings are going to snap”.

He said the only saving grace – discovered in the last year – has been the quality of relationships between employers and employees. 

The Chamber was repeating predictions made at the start of the pandemic, said its outgoing president, whose term was characterised by the coronavirus in 2020 and the country’s corruption issues in 2019.

Business, criminality and politics in the same pot

Business, criminality and politics were “all messed up in one soup”, Xuereb said about the first part of his tenure, highlighting the concerns of members, ethical businessmen and “the majority of good people out there”. 

“Malta’s reputation has affected the economy and we keep voicing concerns about what this has done to us,” he said.

“It is a jurisdiction that raises eyebrows and sends shivers down people’s spines and we have undoubtedly lost business.”

The Chamber has pointed fingers at politicians and regulators over the last year-and-a-half, but not forgotten that a chunk of good governance comes with business leaders too.

Tourists and shoppers at the Valletta waterfront in busier pre-pandemic times. Photo: Shutterstock

It is not limited to Castille, the police and the courts, but these needed to “make a story out of the criminals,” Xuereb said. 

“We all need to understand that not doing things right means losing a lot – not just credibility, but also money and the opportunity to do anything else in life.

We really need to take that seriously, but that is up to the authorities…”

The first step is to recognise “we are not in a good place; we need to be honest about it, while showing determination to turn this around through a focus on good governance structures within all business operations.

“Even well-meaning and honest persons may not be aware of what they are getting involved in and the risks of money laundering, and other forms of criminality may be due to pure naivety or lack of sensitivity to good governance. 

“Ultimately, good governance within corporate life gives positive feedback,” he insisted. 

Over-exaggerated bureaucracy

Xuereb acknowledged that the lack of proper regulation in the country’s recent history has not left it feeling too proud – while disturbing those who are serious.
At the same time, “in the process of ensuring we get our act right, we are aware of the risk of overdoing it, which is wrong because we need to remain competitive on an international level. 

“We want to be better, but not heavier, which would detract opportunities to attract the right people.”

In a corrective phase, that correction tends to be overdone, Xuereb admitted, adding that over-exaggeration and increasing bureaucracy to an unnecessary level was a hindrance to the confidence, ambitions and energy of entrepreneurs, who were, after all, taking business risks.

Regulation should encourage – not hamper – the well-meaning entrepreneur to make the next steps for growth, he said.

Good governance should become “innate and endemic”, rather than a heavily bureaucratic issue, with “Big Brother watching over us”.

With this aim, The Malta Chamber is planning to celebrate homegrown successful businesspeople, who are considered role models and can share experiences that did not come easy, but were the fruit of values, hard choices and aspirations.

It has been working on programmes to ensure that the values of good governance and ethical business, as much as education and climate change, are an integral part of the country’s economic vision.

The Voice of Business, as the Chamber is known, has been listened to, Xuereb believed.

“We want to be relevant to our members, and to do so, we had to address national matters that may go beyond the needs and priorities of business.” 

COVID before commerce

Throughout the pandemic, the Chamber of Commerce never lobbied with the government for businesses to open or close, and it was constantly in contact with public health to understand how it could help.

It is even trying to assist the health authorities in the vaccination programme by offering its own resources to organise inoculation hubs in industrial estates and supermarket locations, where thousands of people are concentrated.

The idea is to help them offload the job, increase efficiency and simplify logistics to speed up the process, Xuereb said, adding that the health authorities are on board.

Closed shops in Valletta. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The plan would also allow manufacturing industry employees and supermarket cashiers, for example, in constant contact with others, to be vaccinated as fast as possible, without having to move around.

The Chamber intends to set up its own infrastructure, providing tents, doctors and nurses, who would be trained to vaccinate.

Looking back, Xuereb maintained enforcement of health measures could have been better and it should have been communicated that the pandemic was going to be around for the longer term.

A female at the helm?

As he prepares to exit the stage, Xuereb is proud that, for the first time, women make up a third of the large cohort of over 30 candidates, whose average age is also lower than usual. 

The fact that they have come forward to seek election on Wednesday, having been rather absent in the history of the Chamber, is a feather in his cap, he said. 

Xuereb has invested time in encouraging these “great businesspeople”, who offer a different and well-rounded perspective and experience.

He could potentially stay on for another term, following a statute change. But ethical considerations have led him to step down, he said, explaining that although not championed by himself, the amendment happened during his tenure. 

His next step remains a mystery to himself as well, though charity work and the idea of running voluntary organisations like a business is on the cards, and his passion for a zero-carbon economy could fuel his next chapter.

“In 10 years’ time, I would like to see Malta at the top of a competitivity index list. And the reasons for that would be right decisions taken now. 

“If we are at the bottom of the league, it would be because we took the wrong decisions now, or we took the right ones too late,” Xuereb said as he prepared to hand over the baton.

“I think we are still in time to get it right. And being a small country helps to enact change fast. 

“But every day that passes without any change is a day lost, and this is why we are impatient.”