Category: Archive – 2014

GRTU this week organized an ad hoc  section meeting for
its members in the Renewable Energy Sector due a number of problems the section
was going through. The meeting was addressed by GRTU President Paul Abela, RES
Section President Noel Gauci and GRTU CEO Abigail Psaila Mamo.

Once again the issue of slow down when no Government
schemes are open was raised. Due to poor planning of when the schemes are
opened this sector experiences sudden increase and decrease in work. When
schemes stop no sales are made till another scheme opens which from a consumer
point of view is very reasonable but they have a large number of employees,
needed for the sudden surge in business created by the scheme, which would be
idle for months on end. The sector is currently in this situation. They know
that by August all the installations would have been completed and there is no
scheme on the horizon. GRTU has made the Government aware of this and is
currently in discussions to ensure that the panning of the schemes takes this
issue into consideration.

Another issue in relation to the Malta Industrial
Parks Expression of Interest was also discussed. The EOI has a number of
important elements that remain unclear and GRTU is seeking to clarify these in
order to give the local operators an opportunity to participate in this EOI.

Minn nhar
it-Tnejn li ġej jerġa' jibda l-ġbir tal-ħġieġ bieb bieb fis-Siġġiewi – Il-Kunsill
Lokali tas-Siġġiewi għadu kemm ġedded ftehim mal-iskema Green MT biex
jitkomplew is-servizzi ta' ġbir ta' skart riċiklabbli mir-residenzi
fis-Siġġiewi filwaqt li jerġa' jibda jsir il-ġbir tal-ħġieġ bieb bieb
fil-lokalità.

Dan il-ftehim ġie ffirmat aktar kmieni din il-ġimgħa mis-Sindku
tas-Siggiewi, Dr Karol Aquilina u mis-Sur Paul Abela, Chairman ta' Green MT.

Permezz
ta' dan il-ftehim ir-residenti tas-Siġġiewi ser ikomplu jgawdu minn servizz ta'
ġbir ta' skart riċiklabbli darbtejn fil-ġimgħa (kull nhar ta' Tlieta u nhar ta'
Ġimgħa) kif ukoll ġiet introdotta mill-ġdid ġabra ta' ħgieg kull l-ewwel Tnejn
ta' kull xahar. L-ewwel ġabra ser issir nhar it-Tnejn li ġej 7 ta' Lulju 2014
mit-8.00am 'il quddiem.

F'kelmtejn
waqt l-iffirmar tal-ftehim il-ġdid, is-Sindku tas-Siġġiewi Dr Karol Aquilina,
qal li dan il-ftehim għandu jwassal biex is-Siġġiewi jkompli joffri kwalità ta'
ħajja aktar lir-residenti tiegħu. Huwa rringrazzja lir-residenti kollha
tas-Siġġiewi tal-kooperazzjoni tagħhom u ħeġġiġhom jagħmlu użu mis-servizzi li
joffri l-Kunsill Lokali għall-ġbir ta' skart riċiklabbli. Huwa rringrazzja
lill-iskema Green MT tas-sehem tagħha u enfasizza li l-iskema dejjem ħadmet id
f'id mal-Kunsill Lokali fl-interess tal-lokalità tas-Siġġiewi u tar-residenti
kollha.

Is-Sur
Paul Abela, Chairman ta' Green MT irringrazzja lill-Kunsill Lokali tas-Siġġiewi
tal-fiduċja fl-iskema Green MT u għall-ħidma kontinwa favur ambjent aktar
b'saħħtu fil-lokalità. Is-Sur Abela spjega li l-għan tal-Kamra Maltija
tan-Negoziji Żgħar u Medji (GRTU), hu li tkompli turi impenn biex tara li
l-membri tagħha, in-negozji żgħar u medji, jkunu minn ta'quddiem biex jilħqu
l-obbligi tagħhom. Fl-istess waqt il-GRTU temmen li kulħadd għandu jkun parti
mill-istess obbligu biex b'hekk l-ispiża tkun ugwali u sostennibli fit-tul.

Fil-preżent
jinġabar 5,330 kilo fil-ġimgħa ta' skart riċiklabbli mis-Siġġiewi. Bis-saħħa
ta' dan il-ftehim il-mira ser tkun dik li jinġabar kważi 7,000 kilo ta' skart
riċiklabbli fil-ġimgħa mis-Siġġiewi.

L-iskema
Green MT ser tkun qegħda tagħmel ukoll kampanja edukattiva u tgħin lill-Kunsill
Lokali tas-Siġġiewi biex isir studju ħolistiku dwar l-immaniġġjar tal-iskart
fis-Siġġiewi. L-iskema Green MT ser tipprovdi ukoll rigali spontanji fost dawk
ir-residenti tas-Siġġiewi li jkunu qegħdin joħorġu l-borża l-griża taghhom biex
tinġabar nhar ta' Tlieta u nhar ta' Ġimgħa u anke fejn jidħol il-ġbir ta' ħġieġ
kull l-ewwel Tnejn ta' kull xahar. Dan kollu qed iseħħ biex jintlaħqu l-miri
stabbiliti fil-pjan nazzjonali għall-immaniġġjar tal-iskart. Fl-okkażjoni
tal-iffirmar ta' dan il-ftehim il-ġdid il-Kunsill Lokali tas-Siġġiewi ppubblika
fuljett b'informazzjoni dwar is-servizzi li joffri għall-ġbir tal-iskart
fis-Siġġiewi. Kopja tal-fuljett tista' titniżżel permezz ta' din il-link:

Preżenti għall-iffirmar tal-ftehim il-ġdid kien hemm ukoll is-Segretarju
Eżekuttiv tal-Kunsill Liokali tas-Siġġiewi, is-Sur Nikol Baldacchino u l-Kap
Eżekuttiv tal-iskema Green MT, is-Sur Joe Attard. Green MT hi skema awtorizzata
mill-Awtorità ta' Malta dwar l-Ambjent u l-Ippjanar biex tiġbor u tirkupra
skart tal-ippakkeġġjar. L-iskema tista' tiġi kkuntatjata waqt il-ħinijiet
tal-uffiċċju fuq in-numru 2149 6965.

22% cent of the food purchased weekly ends up in the solid waste
stream. – GRTU, Green MT
Ltd and other interested parties, including supermarkets, hotels and restaurants,
local councils, waste disposal companies, the government and the Church's
environment commission is a working group nominated by Environment Minister,
Hon Leo Brincat with the aim to present 
recommendations to reduce food waste.

During a
launch held earlier on this week, Hon Leo Brincat, expressed his satisfaction
over the fact that the working group consists of representatives coming from
various sectors and that every person forming part of the group has accepted to
work together with the aim of reducing food waste.

It
transpires that the biggest source of food waste is households, and the best
solution for  waste to be reduced is that
people will have to plan their purchases according to their meals so that they
use only the portions required. It was also suggested that products will be
checked prior to their expiry date so that they will not be thrown away.

The
Committee will be Chaired by Ms  Lisa
Cassar Shaw, and it is expected to issue 
a report within two months.

Tax evasion has
unfortunately become rampant in our country. A number of individuals, including
foreigners, have somehow come to feel comfortable with evading tax or not
complying with it as stipulated by the law.

GRTU
immediately alerted the VAT Department of the situation and it transpired that
the complaints we received where indeed founded. The VAT Department took
immediate action and assigned inspectors to carry out inspections on traders
and businesses for three consecutive dates at the trade fair. The Vat
Department confirmed to us that the majority of traders were found to be in
conformity with Vat legal obligations, but a few were found to be in breach and
were therefore reported. Action on these reports is being taken by the
Department as per normal procedure.

We urge
members to inform GRTU of any tax evading practices they might be aware of.
This will be treated with utmost confidentiality.

GRTU President and CEO have this week participated in a
Business Breakfast organised by the Malta Business Weekly where the Prime
Minister, Hon Joseph Muscat, was the keynote speaker.

Dr Muscat's speech was indeed very interesting. He
confirmed that an increasing chunk of our sales is being done on the internet.
The Government has only a rough estimate of this as transactions through PayPal
only amounted to €66M in 2013. This is double what it was 4 years before in
2009. At the same time we are seeing the level of retail trade going down and
this is very probably a factor. This phenomenon cannot and shouldn't be stopped
but local shops should invest to be able to compete but support is needed to do
this.

On the issue of unfair competition with goods coming
in through various channels and evading VAT, excise duties and eco-tax the
Prime Minister said that the situation will no longer be tolerated and that a
level playing field must be ensured. Dr Muscat stressed that Sicily is part of
Europe and imports coming from Sicily cannot be treated any differently. "In
this regard, and in full respect of EU rules, Government is currently compiling
a new and updated package of market surveillance rules in order to ensure a
level playing field".

GRTU welcomed the approach Government is taking. In an
intervention GRTU CEO Abigail Psaila Mamo stated that this is an issue GRTU has
been insisting for a long time  and our
members are pleased to see that the issue is being taken seriously and concrete
action is planned. Unfair competition is hitting our members very hard and the
situation cannot be sustained any longer.

In addition to this the CEO raised the issue of
taxation privileges. She stated that while we endorse Government's efforts of
attracting new investment to Malta and agree fully that the Government should
do its utmost to make Malta as attractive as possible we need also to be choosy
of what investments it attracts. Unfortunately the positive discrimination
related to a very advantageous tax refund is being utilised by foreign owned
businesses sectors of which our market is already abundantly saturated such as
retail outlets and restaurants. This is resulting in increased unfair
competitive pressures on Maltese owned businesses that have to compete with
businesses that end up paying only 5% of the tax due while they pay 35%. 6/7 is
refunded back to these foreign owned businesses within 48 hours. This is very
unfair and is resulting in the closure of local businesses as they have no hope
of competing.

A Round Table
Discussion on VAT Issues in Businesses was held on the 20th June by the Malta
Institute of Management (MIM) in collaboration with GRTU.  Mr Hector Spiteri, Partner Busuttil &
Micallef chaired the discussion.

The main
issues which were discussed were the different VAT registrations, Legal Notice
524 of 2010, the Sixth Schedule to the VAT Act (including the Entry and Exit
Thresholds and the Acquistions Threshold), cash accounting and various other
matters of interest to Micro Businesses.

This discussion
is one of the many upcoming events and training session that will be organised
by GRTU and MIM exclusively for GRTU Members as part of the cooperation
agreement signed earlier on this year.

"Fostering SMEs growth
through digital transformation" is an initiative from the European
Commission that aims to accelerate the digital transformation of SMEs through
piloting platforms in the following six sectors: agro-food industry;
automotive; construction; fashion; tourism and transport & logistics.

These
were presented at the Inauguration Conference held in Brussels on 8th April
2014. Initiatives in five out of the six pilot sectors are now complete and
have proven to be a real success.             

At present, the European
Commission is working on a broader dissemination phase in order to help SMEs
get familiar with the initiatives and solutions that will actively contribute
to the enhancement of work in their sectors. Therefore further information on
this topic can be found at:

http://digital-value-chains.onetec.eu/SMEsglobalchains_Guidebook.pdf

Atlas Insurance PCC Ltd has
opened its doors in Gavino Gulia Square, Bormla, its eighth branch to date.
Centrally located, the new branch will be handling a full range of personal
insurance services such as motor, boat, home, travel and pet.

"With the new Bormla
branch office, Atlas has now expanded its branch network to eight – in Qormi,
Rabat, Birkirkara, St. Paul's Bay, Paola, San Gwann, SkyParks, and now Bormla,"
said Keith Tanti, Branches and Intermediaries Manager. "Clients can of course
also visit us at our Head Office in Ta' Xbiex."

Mr Tanti added that
"Following the opening of our SkyParks branch in April 2013, we chose to open
yet another branch in order to serve our clients in the south of the island. We
are also pleased to be involved in the rehabilitation process of the area."

Atlas Insurance in Bormla
will be opening Monday to Friday from 8.30 to 1.00pm and from 3.30pm to 6.15pm.
On Saturdays the office will also be open from 8.30am to 1.00pm.

 For any enquiries customers are invited to either
call 21 800 880 or e-mail  

Guidelines to help business
users save money and get the most out of cloud computing services are being
presented to the European Commission. Cloud computing allows individuals,
businesses and the public sector to store their data and carry out data
processing in remote data centres, saving on average 10-20%.

The guidelines have been
developed by a Cloud Select Industry Group as part of the Commission's European
Cloud Strategy to increase trust in these services.

This announcement is a
first step towards standardised building blocks for Service Level Agreements
(SLAs) terminology and metrics. An SLA is a part of a service contract that
defines the technical and legal aspects of the service offered. The recent
findings of the Trusted Cloud Europe survey show SLA standards are very much
required by cloud users.

These guidelines will
help professional cloud users ensure essential elements are included in plain
language in contracts they make with cloud providers. Relevant items include:

The
availability and reliability of the cloud service,

The quality of support services they will receive from
their cloud provider

Security
levels

How to better
manage the data they keep in the cloud.

European Commission
Vice-President said: "This is the first time cloud suppliers have agreed
on common guidelines for service level agreements. I think small businesses in
particular will benefit from having these guidelines at hand when searching for
cloud services."

Vice-President Viviane Reding
said: "These new guidelines will help generate trust in innovative
computing solutions and help EU citizens save money. More trust means more
revenue for companies in Europe's digital single market." She added:
"This is the same spirit as the EU data protection reform which aims at
boosting trust. A competitive digital single market needs high standards of
data protection. EU consumers and small firms want safe and fair contract
terms. These new guidelines are a step in the right direction."

As a next step, the European
Commission will test these guidelines with users, in particular SMEs. It will
also be discussed within the Expert Group on Cloud Computing Contracts set by
the Commission in October 2013. This discussion will also involve other C-SIG
activities, for example the data protection Code of Conduct for cloud computing
providers that was prepared by the C-SIG on Code of Conduct.  The draft Code of Conduct has been presented
to the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (European Data Protection Authorities).

This initiative will have deeper
impact if standardisation of SLAs is done at international level, e.g. through
international standards, such as ISO/IEC 19086. To this end, the C-SIG on SLAs
is also working with the ISO Cloud Computing Working Group, to present a
European position on SLA Standardisation. The SLA guidelines will thus feed
into ISO's effort to establish international standards on SLAs for cloud
computing.