Edwin Vassallo, Parlia-

mentary Secretary for Small Business and the Self Employed opened yesterday's House of Representatives debate on the amendments to the Malta Enterprise Corporation Act.

Mr Vassallo initiated by saying that these amendments are simplifying the legal procedures that already exist. Furthermore, the amendments are an exercise in the reduction of bureaucracy.

Referring to the opposition's criticism that the word “industry” does not feature in the amendments being discussed and that consequently they are not of any help to the industry, Mr Vassallo said that the amendments are giving more flexibility to the Malta Enterprise.

Mr Vassallo criticised the fact that in Malta there still exists the mentality – there are some who call it an imperialist mentality – that we try to turn to the government to freely obtain what we can.

Although this mentality is slowly changing, such a mentality needs to be eradicated.

According to Mr Vassallo, the challenge our country is facing is that albeit our economy is growing, it is doing so in a very restricted way due to the size of the country.

Thus, Mr Vassallo said, the space for industrial use on our islands should be used in a better way.

Opposition Agriculture and Fisheries spokesman Noel Farrugia said it is common practice under Dr Sant’s helm that Labour MPs do not wait for the elections to express their ideas on sustainable development toward generating our economy.

Mr Farrugia said that one of the sectors that needs to be given more serious attention is the agricultural sector. Mr Farrugia focused his contribution to the debate to insist that there should be better value for money. “Are we producing the desired quality to attract more investment?”, he said.

Nationalist MP Frederick Azzopardi analysed the positive results emanating from the hard work that the Malta Enterprise is carrying out. Mr Azzopardi welcomed the fact that in the last two years, the Malta Enterprise registered an improvement despite globalisation and other factors that could have hindered its success. Focusing on various contributors who are involved in improving our economy, Mr Azzopardi remarked that the HSBC Call Centre will be employing another 260 employees by the end of this year. These will be joining the 240 employees who have been employed at the Call Centre since October last year. HSBC will be employing the largest number of people in the financial sector in Malta, he said.

Mr Azzopardi then referred to the increase in the number of students applying to join MCAST’s ICT courses. Between 2001 and 2006, the number of applicants increased from 390 to 1,000. At the same time, the number of ICT graduates increased from 82 to 334.

Opposition spokesman for cooperatives Joe Abela said that the amendments also concern cooperatives.

Contrary to what a lot of people think, he said, cooperatives, just like companies, are also businesses.

Cooperatives are guided by a set of principles such as democracy and by voluntary and open membership. In Malta, Mr Abela said, there are 59 cooperatives with 4,652 members.

Mr Abela said it is not possible to calculate the cooperatives contribution to the economy.

Mr Abela insisted that there should be more transparency. Therefore, a one-stop-shop method should be adopted. Mr Abela said that although during his 10-year tenure in parliament, the one-stop-shop has been mentioned various times, nothing was ever put into practice in this regard.

Mr Abela referred to the Transparency International report, and showed his dissatisfaction to the fact that Malta is listed as the 19th least corrupt country among the European States.

Mr Abela concluded by saying that the laws relating to cooperatives should reflect reality. In the Malta Labour Party's proposals, the cooperative model will feature more in education and will also be promoted at university level.

Opposition Deputy Leader Charles Mangion said as a premise that the opposition will vote in favour of the amendments to the Malta Enterprise Corporation Act. Dr Mangion also insisted on promoting a one-stop-shop system. However, Dr Mangion added, we must be careful so as not to have various structures that will have overlapping powers. A vital question one needs to ask is whether the bureaucracy will be increased or reduced. “We must not increase bureaucracy in this area,” he said.