The transfer of Sea Malta to Grimaldi Lines is a major event in the national shipping line’s history, Investments, Industry and IT Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday.
He was speaking at the 9th Euro-Med Convention of the Grimaldi Group, entitled From land to sea – the economic integration of Europe: The role of the motorways of the sea, at the Westin Dragonara.
Dr Gatt said, the move will ensure the continued existence of Sea Malta. “But the phrase ‘continued existence’ is a humble way of describing what will be happening to Sea Malta over the coming weeks, months and years,” he said.
Dr Gatt said, the investment and the knowledge of one of the largest players in the trade was going to transform Sea Malta, providing its customers shipping to and from Malta with a faster, more reliable and more competitive service than ever before.
“We achieve today another important milestone in our vision to reform the basic economic logic in this country. There have been many changes over the past 15 years but the moment we give up on our willingness to change will be the moment we fall behind our competition,” he said.
Dr Gatt said, that competitiveness and restructuring were two words much used and abused in today’s language of change.
“As we ask European transport to consider the sea as a viable and permanent alternative to roads, we are often met with raised eyebrows of scepticism and resistance. It almost feels like we have ‘grown out’ of maritime transport and by implication it feels like a regression to consider going back to it,” he said.
Dr Gatt said, there was no point in owning a shipping line if the business had no prospects of surviving beyond the limit of state subsidies.
He said there was no point in subsidising unproductive employment, or unsustainable industry, or loss-making activity if these could not meet one important test: will they survive tomorrow’s economic reality?
He said economies grow where governments shrink, leaving the space to private enterprise and private risk to replace political intervention in what should have little to do with politics.
Dr Gatt said: “It is time to realise that no single economy is rich enough to exist on its own. The global flows of investment carry with them the distribution of risk as well as the distribution of wealth and profit.”
He concluded: “The engagement between private and public, between local and global, between commercial and social, between environmental and industrial must be strong, continuous and committed.”
Competitiveness Minister Censu Galea said Malta looked at the motorways of the sea concept from two angles.
“The first is related to the subject matter of this convention that is the role of the motorways of the sea in the European economic integration. The other element is the fact that Malta is a major transhipment hub and it follows that, by using the hub and spoke concept, it could help to reduce congestion on European roads,” he said.
Mr Galea said, Malta considered this concept as a viable business opportunity.
He continued: “Malta welcomed the EU Commission’s initiative a couple of years back to establish a high level group to identify priority regional transport networks.”
He said the recent enlargement of the European Union opened up new opportunities for it to enhance existing cooperation with its neighbours, thus promoting stability, prosperity and security.
“Malta has always considered itself to be a vital link between the north and south of the Mediterranean, and now as a member of the European Union, it is in a better position to take forward the Euro-Med Barcelona process which aims at closer economic integration within the region,” he said.