‘Business is the solution’ – Chamber

"Business is not the problem, but rather the solution. Therefore, business has to take centre stage in the new economic plans the EU will be proposing and possibly introducing over the months to come." 

These were the concluding remarks of the address delivered by David G. Curmi, President of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry at a conference organised by the Employers' Group of the European European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and other social partners on 11 October.

Curmi opened the Conference "Lessons from the economic crisis: An employer's perspective" together with Jacek Krawczyk - President of the Employers' Group, EESC. 

He said that in the Malta Chamber's point of view the current problems in the euro zone were well understood.  Some countries needed to strengthen their balance sheets and improve their competitiveness through reform.

He said that a number of euro zone countries and their populations were facing the painful effects of a grim reality that caught up with them.  These countries had distributed wealth they had not yet earned and the structural debts they accumulated were not sustainable.   People were living beyond their financial means with the false sense of comfort that the State was there to protect them.

From a local dimension, Curmi said that ever since the emergence of the financial crisis, the Malta Chamber had called for economic direction based on two principles.

He said that the Malta Chamber believed that wages must be better aligned to productivity especially when considering that other countries were implementing major reforms to become more productive and cost-competitive.

The objective of the conference was to initiate a frank and open debate on the various responses to the financial and economic crisis in EU Member States and analyse them from a business perspective.  The aim was to encourage an exchange of views, diagnoses and practices between EESC Employers' Group Members and leading Maltese business representatives.

Two panel discussions took place.  The first dealt with questions from a national point of view and an exchange of ideas as to how the governments and employers were dealing with the crisis and which best practices were adopted.  The first panel was moderated by Vanessa Macdonald and included members of the EESC Employers Group. 

The second panel was moderated by Stefano Mallia, Vice President of the EESC Employers' Group.  It discussed Europe's response to the economic crises and whether the EU was aware of the needs and realities of employers.