The Malta Maritime Forum said it is seriously concerned about recent issues which are having a negative impact on the Maltese maritime industry to the detriment of the Maltese economy.

Of particular concern is the current spate of bad publicity being given to the ship repair industry in Malta and the recent decisions affecting the development of Malta Freeport. The problem of noise created by ship repairs is no new comer to the relations between the shipyard and the residents of the neighbouring towns.  

This is an issue, the forum said, which has been surfacing for numerous years prior to the privatization of the ship yards  but solutions and compromises, were always reached within the realities of the situation .  It is indeed most concerning to observe the latest development where the master of a ship and the general manager of the shipyard are hauled before the court and charged with criminal offences. This is not the way to deal with such matters and whoever is reaching out to such remedies is literally missing the woods for the tree.  Such  events are exposing  Malta and the Maltese maritime industry to the ridicule of the international maritime community who cannot understand how Malta can possibly  market itself as a maritime hub and at the same time  persons from the ship repair industry are taken to court for performing  those activities that they are expected to perform as  ship repairers.

The maritime activity is inevitably restricted to port areas – it has been so for centuries - and it is a defiance of logic to challenge the merits and the very existence of the maritime industry  which has been the cradle of industrialization of this nation.  Modern systems of noise abatement could easily have been employed to try and reduce the inevitable din coming from vessels’ engines while they are in docks. The way that such matters should be handled is through a rational approach that sees to the mitigation of the nuisance and the retention of the economic activity.

The ship’s master who is enduring this ordeal is a representative of the ship owner who, out of a number of shipyards within the Med, chose Malta for making repairs on his vessel. Indeed, this is the fruit of marketing undertaken by government, the shipyard and other industry players to attract more of these activities to Malta. Will this ship owner ever come back to Malta with more business! The same applies to the foreign owner of the shipyard, who instead of investing his money on other opportunities in other countries, chose Malta , thereby creating employment, economic activity and wealth. Next time round he will seriously rethink and so will other investors. 

The environment and the Maltese social fabric are also an essential part of the equation and it is in no way accepted that economic activity can disregard these essential elements or in any way be in breach of the laws of Malta which are there to be respected by one and all. However,   the appeal of the Malta Maritime Forum is for us to be careful not to create an impression or expectation that an industry such as ship repair can possibly exist without the associated resultant noise.  Let us ensure that within the parameters provided by the law we refrain from creating unnecessary controversy  and the recommendation of  taking draconian measures which are totally disproportionate to the merits of the case.  

This same attitude was manifested in the recent decision to withhold the further development of Malta Freeport Terminals – a decision which goes diametrically against the trends in neighboring and competing transshipment hubs in the Med who are continuously developing and adding to their facilities to cater for the larger container ships which operate today. Still more mind boggling was the penalty imposed on MFT because of the installation of gantry cranes which, in the first instance, had all the necessary authorizations to be installed, not to mention the fact that such cranes make Malta more competitive in this cut throat industry. There should be more consultation and rationale debate before such decisions are taken because the long term effect of such decisions is catastrophic.

The Malta Maritime Forum wishes to appeal for a more sober and mature approach to these inevitable problems  so that solutions are reached in a studied and coherent manner, respecting the interest of the environment as well as of the industry.