Projects to reduce red-tape in agriculture described at conference

Parliamentary secretary for agriculture Roderick Galdes said that the government had launched many projects in the past months to reduce bureaucratic processes in a round table conference entitled “Efficjenza fil-Hidma tal Gvern.”

Galdes and labour MP Anthony Agius Decelis said that the meeting was an opportunity for stakeholders to review what had been done already and to give ideas and opinions about what else could be done.

“This is a very large sector and many people depend on it but the need to reduce bureaucracy was felt particularly after Malta’s accession into the EU,” Galdes explained.

Galdes pointed out that the government had an aim to reduce bureaucracy by 25% by the next Budget, and that although efforts had already been productive, a lot of work still needed to be done.

“The projects include a one stop-shop for farmers at the Ta’ Qali Pitkalija for all documents needed, as well as a free-phone animal welfare line and a campaign to raise awareness about the facility.”

Galdes said that the latter project had assisted around 5000 cases of animal injuries among others. He continued by saying that the government had also worked to create a joint inspections team for imported produce, to ensure that products were investigated by all entities at the same time rather than having to wait for the various organisations including port health, customs and VAT to carry out separate inspections. He added that a total of 24 joint inspections had taken place in the past year.

“The collection of information about crops grown was also facilitated through a newly created electronic system, and we also created an electronig registration and monitoring system for olive trees,” Galdes said adding that a one stop shop and customer care section had also been created for plant welfare.

Galdes also added that the changes had included the hunting sector, with electronic measures being simplified as much as possible.

“The SMS system proved difficult for some older hunters, so we created a system based on phone calls rather than SMS’s. We also created a more efficient online system to facilitate enforcement,” Galdes added.