Malta must fix its reputation by changing it, Opposition Leader Bernard Grech said Wednesday.

He was addressing the Malta Institute of Accounting’s Biennale, ‘REUSE, REDUCE, REPORT’, discussing sustainable accounting.

“Malta faces two main challenges moving forward: our reputation and our sustainability. How can we fix our reputation and how can we be more sustainable? I believe the two are interlinked. We must fix our reputation by changing it. By creating a new reputation. And if there is a new reputation we need to build, it is the reputation of a champion for sustainability.”

Grech also said that, if elected to government, the Nationalist Party promises to give Malta Institute of Accountants (MIA) representatives a “seat at the decision-making table” with regards to policy making on an EU level.

“We want to empower business in Malta to shape EU policy in partnership with a new Nationalist Government,” said Grech.

He said that Malta’s current business-rule system is in “dire need” of revision and that MIA as it doesn’t give accountancy enough of a voice in the rule making process.

Thus, Grech wants MIA to be given more respect along with a bigger role in the representation of Maltese interests in negotiations of legislation at the European Parliament.

He remarked that with regards to business compliance, Malta has pitifully moved far in the wrong direction which has resulted in Malta’s financial industry having to “chase rules imposed by others”.

By contrast, he noted that two decades ago Malta was a “leader in compliance and sustainability”, such that when establishing the gaming and financial service industry in Malta, “clear laws and authorities” were implemented before them being necessitated by the EU.

Grech concluded by thanking the MIA for instilling a “sense of responsibility” in Maltese businesses and for their efforts in motivating students to take on accountancy as a profession in this “challenging and important time” of Malta being on the FATF grey list.