The government should leave business promotion to the businessmen, Chairman of Trade Malta David Curmi believes.

Trade Malta was set up last year for this very purpose, and last week led a business delegation to Algeria, with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat at the vanguard.

“I think Trade Malta is going to work well. The best ambassadors for business are businessmen not the government.

“Government has a responsibility to create the environment for businesses to operate in but it should never really go and promote business.

“That is why the Chamber of Commerce had decided to join forces with government and set up Trade Malta. I think it is going to work well because it is the business sector that is promoting the concept of exploring new markets.”

PM’s presence helped

Despite his firm belief that politics and business do not mix, Mr Curmi does say that the Prime Minister’s presence during the trip to Algeria did have its benefits.

 “Of all the North African countries it is the largest country in terms of size and population. I don’t think it as a country that can be ignored.

“We had a nice comfort zone is Libya, then once things went wrong we found ourselves with no African market because Maltese do not do business in Morocco and very little business in Tunisia.

“Algeria was a priority market when Trade Malta was set up.

“The fact that we were accompanied by a political delegation gave the whole mission a completely different dimension which worked in our favour.

“Malta had very good exposure in the Algerian press. We are all positive, it is not an easy country to do business in, but had it been an easy country everyone would be here.

“There are challenges, but the Maltese are prepared for these challenges. They had seen them and experienced them in Libya. I think the challenges are more or less the same, perhaps this is even more of a closed market.

“The opportunity is now and not when it opens up and becomes a freer economy.”

Algeria was relatively unaffected by the Arab Spring, thanks in no small part to its President  Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whose regime has ruled the North African country since 1999.

Mr Curmi is well aware that the Algerian population is ruled with an iron fist.

“There are 44 million people in this country and about sixty per cent are under 40‐years‐old, but nobody is allowed to have a credit card in this country, so nobody can travel in theory.

“We have been told the maximum travel allowance is 140 euro per year so with 140 euro you are virtually trapped in your country.

“Imagine if that is lifted or that is changed, you have a market of 44 million on your doorstep. Do we come now or do we come in 10 year’s time when things have changed,” Mr Curmi states.

Opportunities in Algeria’s construction and tourism industries

Mr Curmi sees opportunities for Maltese businesses particularly when it comes to the construction and tourism industries. He points out that there are already a number of Maltese businesses operating in Algeria, including an aviation company.

“If there are going to be any quick wins they will be on the building management side.

“There is big demand for construction knowledge, there seem to have limitations in terms of construction. They seem to want to buy external know-how on building services and construction. Know-how was a recurrent problem throughout our discussions.

“The President of Algerian Chamber of Commerce said there is not a cash problem but a know-how problem.

“You will find Algerians are very happy to invest and build a hotel, but they would want someone else to run it.

“They have no tourism market, they want to develop tourism. The potential is there. They have 1,250 km of coast.

“There are many opportunities here. There are also difficulties and challenges. There is a high level of bureaucracy, even the business people themselves say so.”

Mr Curmi says Malta’s know-how when it comes to building restoration is also in demand in Algeria.

“Our heritage in Malta is very well maintained. The way we have managed to restore our heritage is now attracting attention in Algeria. We think that is going to be a quick win, something may be happening very soon.

“This is Trade Malta’s role is, it is about identifying what we are good at in our country and exporting it somewhere else.”

No such thing as a free lunch

Mr Curmi makes it clear that none of the 30‐strong business delegation to Algeria got a free ride.

“There is an element of screening for these business delegations after Trade Malta publishes a call for applications in the media. Every person on the business delegation paid for this trip. This is not a holiday where Trade Malta pays for a troupe to come to Algeria.

“We wanted to stop that so that we get companies who are really interested in developing business links and who have a spending budget of a few thousand euro for Algeria.”

Trade Malta is already planning four more business delegations for next year. Mr Curmi says the focus is firmly on non−traditional markets such as Asia, the Middle East, parts of Eastern Europe and Africa.

“China is such an important economy in the world, it will soon be the largest. It is certainly not a country that Malta can ignore. Everyone seems to be partnering with China.

“We have to keep politics out of this. China produces virtually everything in the world. How can you ignore such a big economy?

“What we need from China is foreign direct investment (FDI) into Malta. China wants to increase its presence in Malta. Most country are flying there and taking big business and political delegations. The UK is a case in point.”

“The trade flows in the world are now shifting. It is no longer solely based in Europe. Africa will become the most important emerging market in the next 10 years’ time.

“I found out that the main trading partner with Algeria is China, when I would have expected it to be France. This gives you a very good idea of what is going on in the world.

“Europe is fine, it is well regulated, it is an efficient market. It is still not very easy to sell products and services across borders but it works well.

“In these non-traditional markets there are clear opportunities.

“Our function is to open doors. Trade Malta opens doors.”