MBRmay 2017_PG ALL LR

Malta Business Review
06 COVER STORY
CHANGING THE WAY YOU COLLABORATE
We learn more about 3XP, a Cisco UCCE ATP, specialist
Contact Centre solutions provider delivering and supporting
world class contact centres worldwide
8 ELECTION 2017
MALTESE GENERAL ELECTIONS 2017
Summary analysis of the snap general elections, which will
be held in Malta on Saturday, 3 June 2017
12 LEADERSHIP
GOVERNANCE
Study by Malta Employers Association on what
Governance should all be about
16 ANALYSIS: ELECTIONS 2017
LIVING IN A PARADOX
Joseph Farrugia from the Malta Employers Association
superb analysis of the current political and economic
scenario
your perfect atmosphere
52
Our Golden Partners
54
06
SPECIAL FEATURE: TRANSPORT
& LOGISTICS INTERVIEW OF THE
MONTH
20 DELIVERING SECURE, SUSTAINABLE AND
COMPETITIVE ENERGY TO EU CITIZENS AND INDUSTRY
The Editor interviews Dirk Beckers, INEA Executive Director
(EC)
22 RELIABLE LOGISTICS EXPERTS
Jonathan Vella, CEO Express Logigroup, tells why the
company emerges as the solution driver for any freight
requirement
SPECIAL PULL-AND-KEEP
SUPPLEMENT FEATURE:
MiGEA 2017
26 VISION & STRATEGY
An interview with Alan Brincat, Operations Director, Quasar
Ltd, outright winners of three prestigious iGaming awards
32 VALUE & OPPORTUNITIES
We meet LVBet’s captivating Simona Pinterova, PR
Manager, who was voted as Malta's Best iGaming Woman
Leader of the Year
26
CONTENTS
May 2017
32
43 PROFILE
DAPHNE CARUANA GALIZIA: THE BLOGGING FURY
We profile Malta’s most prolific and controversial journalists and blogger,
thanks to our association POLITICO SPRL
FEATURE STORIES
46 GAMING IN MALTA
Colin Gregory, Managing Director at EQUIOM MALTA gives an overview
of the Gaming sector in Malta
51 NEW RULES TO PROTECT INVESTORS AND HELP SMES ACCEPT
DIVERS SOURCE OF CAPITAL
Single capital market and ease small firms access to finance
52 SO LONG JOB FOR LIFE
Maria Zahra tells us just why job hopping is getting close to becoming
the norm
54 BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION
RESIN FLOORINGS VOICING THE FUTURE
Antoine Bonello, MD at the Resin & Membrane Centre on maintain
healthy resin florings
PUBLISHER
MBR Publications Limited
OFFICES
Highland Apartment - Level 1,
Naxxar Road,
Birkirkara, BKR 9042
+356 2149 7814
EDITOR
Martin Vella
TECHNICAL ADVISOR
Marcelle D’Argy Smith
SALES DIRECTOR
Margaret Brincat
DESIGN
MBR Design
ADVERTISING
Call: 9940 6743 or 9926 0163/4/6;
Email: margaret@mbrpublications.net
or admin@mbrpublications.net
CONTRIBUTORS
Antoine Bonello; George Carol; Jean Paul
Demajo; Joseph Farrugia; Colin Gregory;
Donata Kalinska; Denise Nestor; Silvia Pedrotti;
Charlie Williams; Maria Zhara
SPECIAL THANKS
Corporate Identities; CELENT; Demajo Dental;
DOI; European Commissioner for Transport; EU/
EP Plenary Session/Institutions – External
Relations; GRTU; ICF MOSTRA; LinkedIN; Malta
Communications Authority; Malta Employers
Association; Ministry for Finance; Ministry for
Transport & Infrastructure; POLITICO SPRL;
Reza Visual Academy; The Malta Independent;
Wikipedia
PRINT PRODUCTION
Printit
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
- Abraham Lincoln, on the accusation that he was
two-faced: “If I had two faces, would I be wearing this
one?”
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Disclaimer
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prohibited without written permission of the publisher. All content
material available on this publication is duly protected by Maltese
and International Law. No person, organisation, other publisher or
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is sourced from the website, magazine or related product without
first obtaining the publisher’s consent. The opinions expressed in the
Malta Business Review are those of the authors or contributors, and
are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher.
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EDITORIAL
Malta Business Review
Beethoven rocks France! It was one of the most enjoyable
moments of politics, especially in recent history, when Emanuel
Macron entered the stage on the night following his landslide
victory. They were playing the European Hymn, Beethoven's "Ode
to Joy", and not the Marseillaise, the French national anthem. At
the same time they were showing some young girls showing an
illuminated sign reading, "Hope beats Hate". This, for me, was
very emotional.
A couple of weeks ago in one of the absorbing articles penned
by Werner E Jung- "Who is afraid of the Twitter Man", the author
had expressed the hope, that the bad example of Trump might
encourage the people of Europe to think a little more about their
own future when going to the ballots. It had worked in Austria
and in The Netherlands (although by a close margin), which kept the radicals out. In France the polls
had predicted a big win for Macron, but ever since Brexit and Trump, nobody really trusts polls any
more…. This gets us back to Bernard de Mandeville and his "Fable of the Bees", where he concludes
that, "private vice will create some public virtues" – although, that is bending the story and the
interpretation quite a bit!
It is very refreshing, to see a new young politician who came out of "nowhere" a year ago to come to
power, withstanding the trend towards nationalism all around us and winning the election in France,
of all countries. At 39 he is the youngest head of government since Napoleon. He will have a hell of a
job, since France badly needs social and fiscal reforms. It is said that France cannot do reforms, they
can only do revolutions! Well, his election was the first part of a revolution. Vive la France!
I am very happy to see young people take the helm and get some fresh ideas into our socio-political
system. Time to look forward instead of backward. I am one who does not believe that history
repeats itself; we should learn from it but avoid trying to predict the future on that basis. I watched
how Macron’s electoral win has united the French. Europeans are looking at America, watching how
a great Federation can be destroyed. They seem to be learning from a strikingly bad example. Maybe
Europeans will build a monument for Trump one day; who knows?
Dear Reader, I have been very quiet lately, sorry – I was and I am depressed. I have been watching
Maltese build a wall of hate instead of fraternity, intolerance instead of unity, applaud corruption
instead of morality and it disgusts me to still see a lot of ignorance around instead of intellectualism
and wisdom. I have watched how fear and terror is creeping over stability, chaos instead of truth,
segregation instead of convergence, and above all how hypocrisy rules over fairness. Maybe it is time
for me to join Waldorf and Statler on the balcony on the Muppet Show!
It is hard to face that fact and it will probably take some time for me to come to grip with that.
Suzy Kassem, a contributor to this respectable publication, commenting on how a nation’s greatness
depends on its leader, remarked, “Pick a leader who has substance, not superficiality, character, not
immaturity, who is transparent, not secret, who practices justice, not lawlessness, who is truthful,
not a lier… who is steered by his conscience, not a bribe”.
With a highly successful climax to Malta’s iGaming Excellence Awards, one foreign visitor to our
Island told me that now the event is over, he wanted to make a comment about iGaming. He said,
“As far as I am concerned iGaming in Malta is nothing else but government sanctioned money
laundering! And it was not even the present administration who introduced that legislation. Malta
is really lucky that they are such a small entity within the EU, so they can literally do whatever
they want – it will go unnoticed. Malta does have a long history of piracy, deceit and corruption,
so I guess it is just a way of life. I cannot explain the daily news otherwise; who really gives a damn
about Panama, kickbacks, blind police commissioners, passport peddlers, energy, hospital or bank
scandals? As it looks nothing is going to change with the upcoming elections. Your PM must have a
clever plan to call a snap election. He will probably appoint Keith Schembri as Finance Minister and
Konrad Mizzi as Head of the Gambling Commission.”
Admittedly, it is so frustrating to see, read and hear all these developments about all the ramblings
in Malta, that it has also become thorny to express one’s free opinion. It is for the Maltese people to
clean up their own mess. Up to this point it seems that they can live with it quite comfortably, else
they would be out in the streets shouting for "La Revolution" and setting up a Guillotine in front of
Castille!
I hope that all Maltese, as the French have shown us, will also have good cause to finally come
together and unite following the election results. I Hope we have better weather following the
elections. Enjoy the read!
Martin Vella
Editor-in-Chief
Malta Business Review’s editorial opinions are decided by its Editor, and besides reflecting the Editor’s
opinion, are written to represent a fair and impartial representation of facts, events and provide a
correct analysis of local and international news.
Agents for:
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