Maritime industry is one of the mainstays of the local economy contributing around 13 per cent of the islands’ gross domestic product when considering maritime activities within their widest scenario.

Malta, depends to a considerable extent on its sea links with neighbouring countries for its day-to-day survival since we require to import most of our commodities and export our products, and also for the generation of investments in ports and labour by maximising on the geographical location of the islands.

In this context, the ship registry has succeeded to perform significant changes. With a ship owning custom that is predominantly international by its very nature, the local maritime community that, together with the flag administration serves this clientele, has, in the past ten years – but more so in the last five – seen a transformation of the Malta register. This was due to a legislative reform that has managed to attract more quality shipping to Malta discriminating in favour of younger tonnage and consolidating the applicability of international conventions that render shipping more safe and clean, whilst enhancing the welfare of seafarers. This also coincided with the transposition of the EU Maritime Acquis, which, up to the day of Malta’s entry into the EU four years ago was singularly responsible for almost 20 pieces of new legislation.

Admittedly, this has been conducive to the flag initially losing tonnage from its register, to the extent that 2004 saw the latter reaching a low that had not been seen for some years. However, ever since then, Malta has seen a brilliant revival both in quality and quantity of tonnage registered under its flag, which has now reached almost 27 million GT. This was, no doubt, attracted by the excellent service granted by the Authority and by the local private service providers, but, certainly, by the fact that Malta is now a European Union flag, with all the reliability and stability that this brings with it. This image was further enhanced through the administration’s hard work, which resulted in Malta rocketing to the White list of the Paris MoU on Port Sale Control, a certificate of performance for the Maltese merchant fleet and its administration. This means that Malta can offer and additional attraction to ships i.e. that, flying the Malta flag they would have less of a possibility of suffering from undue delays from port state control inspections in European ports.

Through EU funding the Maritime Administration has benefited substantially from thorough capacity building. New staff has been recruited and more importantly a lot of Maltese officials have received training both locally and abroad in order to make them more competent in the contribution they can give to this important activity for Malta. This training has ranged from reading for a number of masters and bachelors degrees and professional diplomas in Maritime related subjects, to placements with foreign maritime administrations, as well as locally organised training.

Besides, the authority has greatly benefited from working with EU agencies such as the European Maritime Safety Agency, which has resulted in a lot of interaction and cross fertilisation of ideas and policies. Direct technical assistance has also been given by these agencies ranging from consultancy to local and overseas workshops and seminars.

EU funding has also been crucial in enhancing the operational capability of the authority through the development of electronic systems for the commercial and technical management of the fleet in order to ensure an efficient and timely service to the register’s customers, and an effective system of monitoring and control to ensure that Maltese ships are operating to the highest safety and pollution standards.

In Malta we have two international ports namely Valletta and Marsaxlokk. The two ports are managed through the Malta Maritime Authority. The Marsaxlokk port is primarily a transshipment container port whilst Valletta is a multi-purpose and multi-user port providing for handling of general cargoes, cruise and ferry operations, ship-repair and the provision of ancillary service to shipping. Both ports, whilst adequately serving the needs of the local economy, act as hub and spoke ports that more importantly generate value-added activities.

Port workers as we generally refer to them in Malta, meaning dockers but with a difference, have been organised in a recognised institution since the early fifties. Through previous years dockers have had the opportunity to participate in tripartite organisations involving the dockers themselves, the terminal operators and government entities involved in ports. This ongoing dialogue has led to a situation wherein the Maltese dockers have succeeded not only to gain recognition as an important and valid service provider in ports but also to participate in decision-making, which process had along the years led to better conditions of work and an enhanced income resulting from gradual but sustainable increases in cargo throughputs.

Due to such state of affairs, that is to say, to a mutual recognition and acceptance of the realities of the port industry, perhaps, the Maltese ports are amongst the few in the world that have not experienced long promulgated industrial action including strikes. Such a situation has resulted from mutual understanding and a consistent dialogue. This dialogue, often prompted from all parties involved, has led to a situation wherein port workers have always recognised the changing times and subsequently adopted their approaches along such sensible lines.

As anyone here can vouch, port reforms in most ports throughout the world have been carried out with consequent job loss of revenues to dockers; situations that at times really meant huge expenses to governments. This has never been the case in Malta. Through years local port workers have always recognised the importance of the need to sustain port activity through their input.

Port workers in Malta have, as a recognised pool, undergone no less than four reorganisation processes, the latest being the one recently concluded just months ago. At no instant was any labour shed off. At no time were earnings reduced; in fact earnings have always experienced commensurate growths with increases in cargo volumes. Cargo volumes in Maltese ports have increased and are expected to further increase not only through the business acumen of terminal operators but also due to the contribution, motivation and pride of our port workers.

In so far as port waste reception facilities are concerned, the requirements have been studied as part of a twinning project with France and the MEDA project on Port Reception Facilities for collecting ship-generated waste and oily wastes. Both studies have confirmed that based on the quantities and types of shipping traffic and cargoes handled in Malta’s ports, the available port reception facilities are adequate. In respect of maritime safety it is important to point out that Malta has just completed a 2.5 million euro project to establish a Vessel Traffic Monitoring System for the whole coastal area and ports. These systems allow Malta to have a more effective tool to monitor shipping around our shores.

An English novelist once said that “the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there”. A renowned Italian politician had said that political or economic initiatives require to focus on the individual. This is the essence of the Maltese port workers pool and the port industry in general.

The recently concluded restructuring of port workers regime in Malta has resulted in a) reduced port costs for handling of cargoes, b) the introduction of more flexibility in the provision of port labour, c) the possibility for port workers to negotiate through service level agreements conditions of work with terminal operators that shall be based on contract law and d) the possibility for the employment of auxiliary workers for peak demands.

Most importantly is the prerogative that dockers enjoy standard legislative occupational health and safety conditions while dockers, particularly the new recruits, receive adequate training and education.

Turning to the issue of the recently published EU Sea Port policy that has replaced previously published two proposals for port packages, I just say that the recently published Communication is a step forward towards the further sustainable development of ports and the organisation of service providers, including dockers.

Within this framework dockers, or port workers as are better known in Malta, need to recognise that they are just one in a chain of units that constitute the intricate web of port service providers. Dockers throughout the EU, who often are organised in legal entities that enjoy exclusive rights, require to appreciate that there could exist other sources that may provide similar and more cost-effective services.

This leads one to ponder on the aspect of whether there shall be just one dockers pool in a port. As long as this pool continues to be subject to competition rules and as long as this pool adequately services demands by port clients then one could live with such regime. This would last as long as the competitiveness of the port is ascertained.

It is a known fact that ports throughout the EU are run and managed by global conglomerates including world renowned terminal operators and shipping lines operating port terminals. These are indeed the people who are effectively investing millions of euros in ports and hence they would seek to operate on sustainable profit margins.

I strongly believe that this is the way forward for the further development of ports, the sustainability of the ports and their hinterland economy, the generating of revenues and the creation of jobs in line with the EU Lisbon Agenda. This line of thought is of course valid as long as the country’s economic development, the protection of its environment and the legislative regime relating to occupational health and safety is ascertained.

Censu Galea is Minister for Competitiveness and Communications