The Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise and the Federation of Industry are having talks aimed at a merger of the two bodies, which are expected by year’s end to sign a memorandum of understanding setting out the terms and conditions of the merger.

Chamber president Victor A. Galea told the annual general meeting that intense discussions have been held during his presidency. “There are sensitive situations: there are sectoral interests that need to be addressed, fundamental interests that should be entrenched, tradition that needs to be guarded; and reluctance to change. So to move forward compromise had to be sought. I feel that ultimately we will be proposing a new statute that will certainly strengthen and ensure that the qualities found in both organisations will be exploited to each other’s advantage,” he said.

Mr Galea announced that during a meeting held on 1 November, the Chamber council unanimously approved the draft statute being proposed. He added that representatives of trade sections and economic groups have been kept abreast of developments and two information meetings were also held this year.

“Traditional manufacturing has declined but it has been replaced by knowledge-based industry and such like activities as the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector, aviation, precision engineering, and ICT are forever growing,” he said.

The president expressed hope that by the year’s end, both organisations would sign a memorandum of understanding setting out the terms and conditions of the merger. Once the terms and conditions were fulfilled, the decision to merge would lie with the membership of both organisations.

“I should hope that you believe in the merger as much as I and my fellow councillors believe in it. The synergies that can be derived from the consolidation of resources would produce a larger and stronger organisation enabling us to better serve members demands while giving the commercial sector a louder voice than ever before,” Mr Galea argued.

He said that during the year, their efforts and activities centred on contributing to Malta’s economic development. The chamber participated in the country’s social dialogue within the MCESD, in direct consultation with the government and in the public debate on a number of subjects. Most predominant among the national issues were port reform; better regulation; illicit trade; review of rent laws; price inflation; waste packaging regulations; the 2008 Budget and euro adoption.

He also referred to collaboration agreements concluded with the two major banks.

Mr Galea mentioned the chamber’s internationalisation project with the aim of promoting external trade and investment. The chamber would be assisting member companies in internationalising their business operations by assisting them to tap new markets for products and services, investing overseas and/or finding international trade/investment partners.