A resume of Dr Gatt's speech on investment has already been carried on TMID. Joe Mizzi, the first Opposition speaker on the ministry's estimates, spoke about Maltacom. He claimed the corporation is finding itself in worse and worse situations and hoped that it will not be the workers who get blamed. Subsidiary companies are being wound up: what, he asked, will happen to the employees? Who will get priority: the workers who will revert to Maltacom from the subsidiaries or those who remained at Maltacom?
Maltacom can become efficient if only waste is cut. The cost of local telephone calls will be increased, both as regards the rent and as regards pulses, while there is still a lot of wastage in the company.
Promotions have been given to blue-eyed boys such as the chief messenger.
There is no government strategy for Enemalta, as can be seen from the frequent power cuts. There is inadequate maintenance and government has committed itself to bring the power stations up to EU standards by the end of this year, while it knows it cannot do this. Malta will thus be fined by the EU, as the power stations needs more precipitators to block all dust emitting from the chimneys, but there is no room for them on the chimneys.
This means that the Marsa power station will have to be changed. Government speakers have spoken of a new cycle at the Delimara station, but no study has been done - there is no finance for this nor place for it.
Nothing has been done by the Water Services Department to solve the problems regarding floods.
And Maltapost is inefficient.
Leo Brincat spoke about IT. This was the first time that an Opposition spokesman, appointed specifically on IT issues, had spoken on the subject. The Labour Party is also represented on the E-Commission.
Mr Brincat quoted from an unpublished survey which said that there has been little take-up of jobs in the IT sector. Many entrepreneurs questioned by the survey did not even know of the advantages to be found in the sector.
Nor has there been great take-up for money transactions internationally, as many traders in Malta do not consider it sufficiently safe.
It would seem that government's strategy did not meet its stated objectives.
Mr Brincat quoted from an article by Claudio Grech, the ministry's man on IT and the national e-Commission. He said that while the plan said that Malta can find export opportunities for IT in nearby countries, it now seems these nearby countries have since been targeted by other countries, with which they have a closer relationship.
Even the EU area is slackening: the US spends more on research and development than the EU and Japan do.
The IT geography is changing: Silicon Valley has now become a cemetery while countries in Asia, such as Japan, India and China, have attracted most of the jobs. What used to be considered a low-cost area is now handling work which is not low-cost at all.
Malta's smallness is its advantage: that is why we have more broadband than the EU average.
Mr Brincat asked what has become of the government's plan to install webphones and to allow online payment of such things as IT, VAT and Social Security.
With regard to the Microsoft packages, it would seem that the source code had not attracted much attention from the industry.
Government should publish all the details of its deal with Microsoft.
He also referred to a recent advertisement in the papers which warned that the students? pack could only be linked to licensed packages.
Mr Brincat said that Dr Gatt is not really in charge of all that is happening in the sector, such as the Malta Financial Services Authority increasing rates for accessing the companies' register.
The new bandwidth is being used almost exclusively by VOIP.
The government webpage was recently hacked by a site in Morocco.
The MCST does not have enough funding: this is short-sightedness on the part of the authorities, Mr Brincat said, adding as an aside that he does not really see Malta joining the Euro before 2008.
He asked: is MITTS going to be dismantled? It would seem that government is going one way and the world is going in a way other than the Microsoft way.
The workers at MITTS are demotivated.
The implementation of the XP (the Microsoft Office package) has slowed down because of security concerns. Difficulties had been encountered with off-the-shelf solutions purchased by some government departments, such as the one adopted by Customs, which seems to have caused some problems.
There is also no general recovery plan. MITTS should have been retraining its workforce. Magnet 2 should be hurried up.
John Attard Montalto in contrast, spoke mainly about industry.
Air Malta has recently told the country the extent of its financial problems. The dockyards had accumulated Lm300 million in debts. No one knows the real situation at Water Services, nor at Enemalta. At the Freeport, it is government who is paying the interest. There is also the situation at PBS, while Sea Malta has had to increase prices, with their effects on Malta's competitiveness.
All this brings one to conclude that everywhere government has touched, there is failure.
Malta is full of monopolies and yet we pay more for anything than people elsewhere.
It would seem that many think only John Dalli can save this situation but then his biggest plan is to privatise the freeport. The recently-announced agreement with CGMA should have been concluded six years ago, not now. CGMA has 30 per cent of the traffic at the Freeport.
The Freeport is crucial to Malta. The management agreement should benefit both Malta and the other party but Dr Attard Montalto has suggested to government that it go for strategic alliances.
Joe Debono Grech, repeating in part what he had already said in the morning sitting, said the Opposition does not agree with total privatisation. Government has given foreigners some jewels on a plate such as HSBC, whose property alone must have now risen so much in value. Even MIA has been given away at a pittance, and the purchasers must have already recouped what they spent. The chairman is a gentleman, but he still does not agree that he should have been chosen.
Gozo Channel, on the other hand, has sunk due to the sheer number of people working for it.
Malta does not need to join the EU for it to learn how to do things. Workers must not lose their jobs.
What needs to be done is to curb abuse such as government cars, which one sees at weekends in Gozo, and mobile phones.
Helena Dalli said no accounts have been published by the Malta Drydocks for 2002. Government still refuses to give the Opposition information about the dockyard but it would seem that foreign workers have been engaged to work there.
The EU has forced Malta to cap its dockyard output, so some work is having to be farmed out by the dockyard, and this reduces competitivity.
The situation at PBS has been long in coming: the expenses involved with Giochi senza Frontiere, farming out and overtime have all contributed to the present situation.
What manning does government want to have: 90 as the Mimcol report said, or 50 as the minister said? What structure does government have in mind? Work has not even begun on the January schedule.
Joseph Cuschieri spoke about Air Malta. The norm used to be that the person chosen to be Air Malta chairman did not become involved in politics. He hoped the new chairman would respect this, but he is still writing articles in newspapers in favour of PN policies.
Has Azzura Air been sold or not?
The December figures do not look encouraging. A Maltese ambassador (later Mr Cuschieri said it was the son of an ambassador) expressed his worries about the cut in commission rates for tour operators and passed very sarcastic comments about where the cuts should have been.
The helicopter service to Gozo by Air Malta Charter, will end by October as the helicopters are not in line with EU standards and the operation was losing money. But the service had a social role.
People interested in running the service seem to have considered bringing in a helicopter which conforms to EU standards but this would lose some Lm2 million a year. They are now considering a fixed wing aircraft. The losses on this would amount to just Lm200,000, but the helipad runway would have to be expanded to 1,000 metres.
The purchase of four and then another three RJ-70s by Air Malta should be investigated by a serious public inquiry. Their purchase ended up being a huge burden on the company - for which the workers will be paying.
It would seem that the decision to purchase the RJs came just after a visit by then British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd to Malta in which he told then Foreign Minister Guido de Marco that the UK would support Malta's accession to the EU.
Parliament must discuss Air Malta.
Tonio Fenech argued that the IT sector is very fragmented.
Malta has very good software developers but they tend to operate alone. Because of this they cannot carry out proper marketing. They should get together and pool resources. If, for instance, they could come up with a hotel management system, they would be able to market this abroad.
David Agius said that e-government is increasing efficiency, since it can be contacted 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the downloading of certificates and applications and also for emailing government officials and receiving replies.
It is Maltese nationals who man the computers at the freeport: they should train other Maltese to do so too.
The reply by minister Austin Gatt with regard to investments has already been published.
As far as ICT is concerned, Dr Gatt congratulated the Opposition for at last choosing a spokesman on IT and he congratulated Mr Brincat for his speech.
Government is spending Lm15.5 million on IT
Four thousand people have followed the My Web programme, 2,000 this year alone. All local councils have internet connection and there are 75 webphones. 30,000 have taken the Microsoft package and Malta now has the Microsoft and Cisco academies. Government had a vision and it invested in it.
Changes are coming and Malta can easily lose its reputation if it chooses a road that is not the right one.
It is the private sector that will mostly benefit from IT. The final draft of the IT plan for the country will be published in January.
A number of programmes will come on stream in the coming year. Broadband access has been increased, but it seems it is being taken by VOIP.
One idea that is being investigated is to make all Malta wi-fi.
Another project would see Enemalta wiring being used for data transmission.
Dr Gatt added that there must be change at MITTS and further integration. Setting up a central data base was important
The Contracts Committee is still looking into the electronic identification project. This examination has taken all of 14 months and the process is still at the Contracts Committee. Once the system is approved, every Maltese citizen will receive an electronic ID which can also be a digital certificate and even, if needed, provide fingerprint identification. With this system Malta will have a state-of-the-art system which will open the way for people to pay VAT, income tax and social security online. The public will also be able to access very personal information which cannot be shown to others, such as details about one's health. Eventually Malta will, if it so chooses, also be able to vote electronically.
Quelle: Malta Independent, 16.12.2003
