MONEY JULY 2019 ISSUE 55

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TH E D E SI G N & CO N ST R U CT I ON EDI T I ON I SS U E 5 5

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COVER STO RY

Harald Roesch

LINE OF DEFENCE

20 S i m o n e Ve l l a L e n i c ke r

STUMBLING BLOCK

12 Cami Appelgren & Emmanuel Sinagra

KILLING ME SOFTLY

28 Edward DeBono

JUSTICE AT LAST

MONDAYS TUESDAYS WEDNESDAYS THURSDAYS

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FRIDAYS

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PA R K T O W E R S M A L L B O R G O L I V I E R S T R E E T, S T J U L I A N ’ S

F R E E

C U S T O M E R

PA R K I N G

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4 · MONEY

WELCOME

If you listen carefully, you can actually hear the cracks…

ISSUE 55

COVER Harald Roesch

While no one would complain that the debt (and interest payments) are going down, that there is full unemployment, and that the roads are getting overdue investment, the fact of the matter remains that the economy has grown too fast.

Read the full story on page 18

Imagine if you were that poor Ħamrun woman making a cup of tea in her apartment who saw a crack appear in her kitchen wall and knew that it meant trouble. Like her, we should be very worried indeed.

That crack, if you recall, just a month later turned into bigger crack, a block of stone falling out, and as she stood there in amazement, the whole wall tumbling down.

The construction sector is far from the only sector to be suffering from growing pains.

But it is the most visible element of that overheated expansion and possibly the one that caused most inconvenience.

The frenzy to get properties up and sold or rented before the boom ends has resulted in panicked developers all chasing for workers.

And once the qualified and experienced workers were taken up, with deadlines pressing, they turned to inexperienced ones. And as the developers chased around for cranes, amateurs started to muscle in, thinking that this was easy money, rather than tragedy waiting to happen.

rang and rang unanswered. People filed report after report at police stations. And yet the abuse continued unabated, from cranes blocking roads without permits, to work starting at dawn, to dust drowning every tree and bush.

There was nowhere on the BRO website for the method statements meant to be made available to the public. The OHSA’s handful of personnel drove around the island like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to figure out how to prioritise when lives could be at stake.

And still one accident after another was reported, tragedies only very nearly averted, until the prime minister said ‘enough’ and temporarily suspended all excavation and demolition.

The system started to groan under the weight of applications. Greed and political opportunism spread their tentacles and those who were meant to safeguard the system were overwhelmed by their futile attempts to staunch the haemorrhage.

The Malta Building and Construction Authority – which should be up and running by the end of the year - is now being touted as the solution to all the problem, rather than as the failure of all the other entities to regulate the sector.

Social media was flooded with photos of unsafe practices and neighbours complained on Facebook – the only place they could be sure they would be heard. Entities like the Kamra tal-Periti, and individuals likes geologists, architects, engineers all raised the alarm. The only lacklustre solution offered was to set up yet another authority.

Unfortunately, unless there is a serious change in mentality – or the most unlikely introduction of enforcement with teeth that applies across the board to the big and to the small - the sector has about as much chance of avoiding collapse as that wall in Ħamrun.

Workers fell off roofs and walls collapsed.

The phone at the Building Regulation Office

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CONTENTS

6 · MONEY

08 12

ISSUE 55

30

INSIGHT

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL MONEY’s Giselle Borg Olivier seeks the views of three key players involved in the Malta-Gozo tunnel debate.

KILLING ME SOFTLY

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Dayna Clarke catches up with prolific environmentalist Cami Appelgren and University professor Emmanuel Sinagra, to discuss the stark reality and consequences of Malta’s construction boom.

24

Political analyst Manuel Delia mulls on the consequences of overdevelopment we as a nation are yet to face as a result of letting things go over our head and our shortsighted mentality in this regard.

C L I M AT E C H A N G E

GENERATION CLIMATE Prof. Simone Borg, Malta’s Ambassador for Climate Action and chair of the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, speaks about the Paris Agreement and what it takes to unleash the potential of such an agreement.

28

OFFICE PERKS THAT PAY OFF Elise Dalli compares the age of factory-machine productivity with the age of championing the human worker, leading to a change in office culture.

MONEY interviews Harald Roesch, chief executive officer at Melita, on the service provider’s constant investment, its cloudto-premises network experience and the layers of defence it is offering businesses to help mitigate cyber attack risks.

LEG AL

JUSTICE AT LAST A court judgment last May could turn out to be a game-changer for owners whose properties have been occupied for generations. Edward DeBono of Fenech & Fenech Advocates explains the implications to MONEY.

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A N A LY S I S

Economist Jordan Portelli analyses the realities of the current property boom and its sustainability.

INTERIORS

LINE OF DEFENCE

STUMBLING BLOCK

DWELL(ING) ON THE PROPERTY BOOM

NO SAFETY, KNOW PAIN; KNOW SAFETY, NO PAIN.

COVER STORY

CONSTRUCTION Simone Vella Lenicker, president of the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers (Kamra tal-Periti), delves into the need for a modern building and construction regulation framework.

H E A LT H & S A F E T Y

In the light of a string of incidents in the construction industry, Aldo Busuttil, director at AME Health and Safety Services, emphasises the importance of not only meeting health and safety standards, but exceeding them.

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DOWNFALL

ENVIRONMENT

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OPINION

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COUNTRY REPORT

WITHOUT RHINE OR REASON The European Parliament elections shook up the status quo in several countries, some pleasantly and some not. Germany had a few surprises of its own.

DESIGN

LEAVING A MARK MONEY interviews Craig Macdonald, co-founder and illustrator at Te fit-Tazza and Souvenirs That Don’t Suck.

FA S H I O N

SUMMER MAGIC MONEY’s sizzling choices for this summer.

INSIGHT

8 · MONEY

ISSUE 55

Giselle is a freelance writer, proofreader and social media marketer who lives on Instagram and cappuccino. She runs Content for Success.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

MONEY’s Giselle Borg Olivier seeks the views of three key players involved in the Malta-Gozo tunnel debate.

The Malta-Gozo Tunnel Project has been a bone of contention between those who believe that it will be beneficial for commuters, both Maltese and Gozitans, and will boost the tourist trade to Gozo, and those who are evidently worried about the negative environmental impact that the tunnel will have.

I asked three key players participating in this debate – the Malta-Gozo Tunnel Steering Committee, Din l-Art Ħelwa, and the Gozo Business Chamber – about their views on this project and whether concerns are justified.

Earlier this year, Franco Mercieca, chairman of the Malta-Gozo Tunnel Steering Committee, said that “the environmental impact assessment is at an advanced stage and we should have the final conceptual design in the coming weeks. This would lead us to a situation that we can test the market for prospective bidders to design, build, maintain and operate such a project”.

He further updated his statement, saying: “The conceptual design, which is a design of the Malta Gozo tunnel that is being proposed by the Maltese Government, has been in hand for a few months now. The conceptual

design is important so that a cost-estimate, and therefore the feasibility of the project, is verified. This will be published with the pre-set award criteria in the coming weeks in the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. Once the bidder is selected, the latter must come up with the definitive design which must be within our pre-set parameters.”

Dr Mercieca sustains that the tunnel “is the best chance ever that we have to connect the islands. However, if the EIA proves to be exceedingly detrimental then we have to go back to the drawing board and rethink the whole permanent link project”.

Regarding the metro issue, “this has also been discussed on a national basis. In principle, even the cockroaches on the islands would agree wholeheartedly with such a project. However, this is a totally different project which, according to ARUP, is only feasible for the centre of Malta due to the quantum of potential users which are lacking in the periphery of Malta and the whole of Gozo. The population requirement for a metro to be feasible in Gozo is being quoted to be 100-150,000 which is a far cry from current numbers. From our estimates, a meagre 1520,000 people are living permanently in Gozo.

Regarding the views from the Gozo Tourism Association about having a permanent link between Malta and Gozo, Dr Mercieca noted that, “the GTA has expressed concern that tourism to Gozo may suffer with the fixed link and that they would prefer a metro rather than an open road”.

“The possibility of including a metro with the current road tunnel has been considered but abandoned due to lack of feasibility.

Our consultants tell us that geologically we cannot have a tunnel wider than 14 metres which would not be sufficiently wide to have both a road and a metro. And this apart from the regulatory differences in inclination between a metro and a road tunnel that, according to our experts, are incompatible.”

“Firstly, I don’t know of any place in the world where improving accessibility has led to a decrease in visitors. I agree that the type of tourist will change but most definitely such a project will lead to an increase in the quality and quantity of tourists visiting our island. Just consider the number of hotels, not in Mellieħa, but in Ċirkewwa/Marfa region which have a bed capacity larger than the total number in Gozo and do not experience the seasonality we do in Gozo.

The difference being the 5km stretch of sea with the consequential unpredictability of the crossing.”

Dr Mercieca clearly believes in the success and advantages that a tunnel adjoining the two islands will achieve. “The advantages of having such a project are plenty which one can classify into local and national issues.

Gozo and Gozitans want this tunnel as the well-being drain which is highlighted in the social impact assessment published in 2017 is leading to an economic drain which pushes the young generation to leave Gozo for good.

This results in the consequential brain and

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

INSIGHT

MONEY · 9

Pictured: Daniel Borg skill drain that are leading to a demographic drain. Over the last two decades the number of school children in Gozo has dropped by 40% compared to the Malta scenario where it dropped by 23%.”

Dr Mercieca says that he fully understands those who hold various concerns that such a project may present and believes that mitigation measures should be implemented as soon as possible.

“Our youngsters cannot combine career progression with rearing a family in Gozo.

In fact, they end up having to choose between them; most choose career and thus they translocate to Malta. This is even more challenging for career-oriented women. Gozo is the region that produces most graduates but the least that absorbs graduates.”

“Social tunneling will lead to better opportunities in education and employment, apart from better health services. However, the most important issue for the tunnel is that connecting the islands would boost the Maltese economy in general. The Gozitan economy is highly dependent on government investment. Over 40% of employment in Gozo is government-based which is very high compared to the 25% in Malta. With a population of 8% of total Maltese population, Gozo contributes only 5% of the gross domestic product. Thus, Gozo is an economic burden on the Maltese coffers apart from underproducing.

“Overdevelopment of Gozo is the main concern; however, I find it totally unfair to link the issue of guaranteed accessibility to that of overdevelopment. It is like saying that if you improve the road leading to Ħal Safi, one would ruin the village. It’s the lax and inappropriate development policies that can ruin a place and not the improved accessibility.

“The Faroe Islands embarked on an ambitious project of connecting the islands. Currently they are connecting three islands with a total subsea tunnel of just over 18 km at a cost of €286 million. With a population of 50,000 they have one metre of tunnel per person. The main reason for connecting the islands is that it’s the only way to boost their economy.”

“Overdevelopment must be dealt with through strict development policies tailormade for Gozo, by not only having ODZ areas but also having buffer zones established.

The main feature of Gozo that distinguishes it from Malta is that the villages in Gozo are separated by a band of land and therefore these areas must be protected. This concept has to be initiated straight away even if the tunnel project does not come to fruition.”

As regards to the pollution, Dr Mercieca said: “Considering that by the time this tunnel project would be completed, we would have a higher percentage of cars less dependent on fossil fuels and that the ferries themselves are pollution factories, the logical answer is a no-brainer.

“Traffic is already an issue in Gozo, which is gradually getting worse. The fact that to go from the south to the north of the island one

must go through Victoria is nonsensical. In my opinion the roads surrounding Victoria must be improved, apart from the consideration of the creation of an alternative route around or under Victoria. The centre of Victoria should be restricted for traffic and more areas should be pedestrianised. Also, decent parking facilities must be created.

“Without this project Gozo will continue to lose one of its best characteristics – the Gozitan himself. Gozitans do not need positive discrimination or subsidies, but equal opportunities and level playing fields; we are not second-class citizens.”

Alex Torpiano, executive president of Din l-Art Ħelwa, explained the concerns that the NGO has about the project especially in terms of the environmental impact.

“Din l-Art Ħelwa has publicly acknowledged the connectivity problem of Gozitans, but is seriously concerned that (i) the proposed solution will have a major environmental impact, without necessarily achieving the stated objective of improved connectivity; (ii) the government has not yet carried out the studies that are required to assess the first point, and yet it has already declared that the tunnel will be built.”

He continued: “What is the use of paying lip service to ‘due process’, of having 'independent' authorities, or indeed of undertaking any studies, if the decision has already been taken by the Prime Minister, and Parliament, that the tunnel will happen? →

10 · MONE Y

Our concern is that this position simply represents electoral promises, which did not imply that a tunnel would be built even if studies showed otherwise. We are concerned that without a proper holistic assessment of the impact of such a major infrastructural intervention, Malta and Gozo may be burdened with major negative consequences, long after the current politicians have all moved on.”

Although an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is being done, Prof. Torpiano explained that Din l-Art Ħelwa believes that this is not the only study that ought to be done as there are other factors that affect, and will be affected, by the project.

“An EIA should give data which informs the decision on what the environmental cost of the project would be. We believe that there are many other studies that need to be undertaken. For example, one financial feasibility of the project that has been published is based on assumptions that are not necessarily factual. The length of tunnel, and hence the relative cost, have been assumed; but the indications are that the tunnel will be longer than that. The basis for the calculation of the costs, of construction as well as of operation, is still not clear.

“The implications of private investment to fund the project, investment which necessarily requires a return for the investors, is still not clear. The socio-economic impact on Gozo is still not clear. The impact on the existing ferry service is not clear. The impact

INSIGHT

ISSUE 55

DIN L-ART HELWA, LIKE OTHER NGOS, IS CONCERNED THAT WE ARE MOVING IN THE DIRECTION OF A MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURAL PROJECT, WITHOUT KNOWING EXACTLY WHERE IT WOULD TAKE US on the road systems in Malta and in Gozo, as a result of this tunnel, is not really known although congestion on the route from Ċirkewwa to Valletta is well known and can be expected to get worse with a higher volume of private vehicular traffic. Din l-Art Ħelwa, like other NGOs, is concerned that we are moving in the direction of a major infrastructural project, without knowing exactly where it would take us.”

“Having a permanent link between Malta and Gozo will have positive consequences for commuters, but as Din l-Art Ħelwa pointed out, why is it assumed that economic development is the only measure of well-being? And why does economic development always have to be at the cost of the environment? Any improved connectivity should, first, be for the benefit of everyone and not of a few. We are aware, for example, that one major lobby in favour of the tunnel are the commercial actors in Gozo who wish to deliver their goods to Malta without spending hours waiting on the quay; this is a legitimate concern. But would not a dedicated ferry, which avoided the need for waiting, solve this problem? We would like these options to be studied with the same rigour as for the tunnel.”

The Gozo Business Chamber weighed in on the discussion, explaining that there is favourable opinion about the tunnel from the Gozitans. “Surveys show that the majority are in favour of the tunnel. The Chamber believes there should be objective discussion accompanied by information on the subject.

The recent publication of the studies conducted so far on the website of Transport Malta is a step in the right direction. The Gozo Business Chamber was the main instigator

behind the permanent link between Malta and Gozo and believes that this project will ultimately benefit the Gozitan community, and the whole nation.”

The Chamber too expressed its support for the EIA report and the results gleaned from it and explained the benefits that it believes the project will provide.

“Like other large-scale initiatives and projects, an EIA is of paramount importance.

That is why the Gozo Business Chamber has contributed by giving its opinion when the Project Description Statement & EIA Screening were issued for consultation. In proposing a subsea tunnel, the Chamber did this with a view that the seabed should be left intact and that such a project should in no way disturb the tranquility and isolation of Comino. Moreover, the Chamber has always insisted that such a project should be accompanied by clear guidelines on development in Gozo which would ensure that its countryside and village cores would remain intact.

“Obviously, like any other decision there are disadvantages. However with the right policies and a long-term vision and strategy in place, these can be mitigated and overcome,” the Chamber concluded.

According to the website of the Environment and Resources Authority, the status of this project is ‘Awaiting EIA and AA (Appropriate Assessment)’; however, (at the time of writing) there was no further information available on the website regarding the status of the report, the consultation dates of the EIA report, and the date and location of the public hearing.

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ENVIRONMENT

12 · MONEY

Dayna is a senior speech therapist by day and feature writer by night.

When she’s not busy fixing words, she is travelling the world to add to her fridge magnet collection.

Killing me softly Dayna Clarke catches up with prolific environmentalist Cami Appelgren and University professor Emmanuel Sinagra, to discuss the stark reality and consequences of Malta’s construction boom.

ISSUE 55

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

ENVIRONMENT

Malta has one of Europe’s worst levels of air quality and registers a significant number of early deaths as a result of air pollution.

What is the scale of the problem in Malta? Is this something accepted on a local level?

Appelgren: In Malta, unfortunately there is an issue overall with an “out-of-sight, out-ofmind” mentality, be it waste management or air pollution. So due to the fact that there’s a need to change the mentality, the issue is colossal and not very easily solved. People don’t realise how much they are affected by air pollution until they get ill.

Prof. Sinagra: If one checks the European Environment Agency's website (www. eea.europa.eu), one can see real-time measurements and also a picture from the traffic hot spot Msida. The last 100 days have had about 27% of poor air quality. This is is more than likely to be due to particulates and is expected due to both traffic and Saharan dust episodes. We should not take comfort from that if they are so and as I have said earlier, we need to mitigate against vehicular emissions in the area. It is notable that traffic congestion will be relieved by a series of bridges in this region. Whether that will address the matter remains to be seen. Furthermore, the picture is received

MONEY · 13

in real-time from sites monitored in realtime. There will be localities in Malta, which are not monitored in real time, that due to traffic congestion register some high levels of PM10 (Particulate Matter) an d NO2 (Nitrogen Dioxide). If we look at each pollutant, its annual average and its relation to the limit value, we will have a bigger picture of what is happening locally.

PM10 – There are non-anthropological reasons for this.

PM2.5 – This is combustion-related and the internal combustion engine in cars is a main culprit. This can be poor in Malta, although levels of this pollutant in monitoring sites have been decreasing over the years.1 O3 (Ozone): Regarding this, we are in the amber region. One needs to understand that this is largely transboundary pollution from our northern neighbours. Incidentally, this pollutant decreases in urban areas as other pollutants, combined with sunlight, react with it.

NO2: Malta is not doing that bad in terms of not emitting much of this pollutant. It is however traffic-related and although even the Msida monitoring station shows

Annual mean PM2.5 (mg/m3)

26

Pictured: Cami Appelgren annual averages below the annual limit, some exceedances of the hourly limit can be achieved in this area and more than likely during peak traffic in other areas.

Other pollutants: sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and benzene; Malta is doing well in terms of not emitting much of these pollutants.

Regarding early deaths from pollution, this is not an easy subject. There are uncertainties that relate to the coefficients used for the calculations. Nevertheless, we can look at premature deaths attributable to PM2.5, NO2 and O3 exposure; Malta has 240, 20 and 10 respectively. Compare this with a similar population, that of Luxembourg, which stands at 240, 50 and 10.

Now, if you were to consider the years of life lost (YLL/100 thousand) attributable to PM2.5, NO2 and O3 exposure, Malta has 629, 41 and 41 respectively. Compare this with the EU-28 values of 820, 157 and 36. There are worse levels and we are not just talking about Eastern European countries. Of course, there is always room for improvement.

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What are the consequences if we ignore this environmental issue?

0 2008

2009 MSD

2010 ZTN

2011

2012 GRB

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Figure: Annual mean PM2.5 concentration for the Msida, Żejtun and Għarb stations compared to the 25 µg/m3 annual limit. 2

Appelgren: I think that there is hope that we will address the more significant issue, but too many people are ignoring what they consider small matters. The fact that minor problems are ignored makes them part of the greatest threat. We have to tackle the environmental issues from all angles; through education, enforcement and empowerment. →

14 · M O N E Y

ISSUE 55

ENVIRONMENT

factors. Contributions beyond our control are sea spray and Sahara episodes which give rise to the sand red rain. These are not insignificant and have contributed to PM10 measurements at Msida exceeding daily limits more than the stipulated 35 times a year. 3 Obviously, we still need to mitigate other contributions from traffic, construction and other activities. Tourism obviously contributes to traffic generation and hence give rise to traffic-related pollution with the same seasonality. Fireworks do produce pollutants in a seasonal manner.4 It is not just the fine particles as in PM10s but also their constituents which may be heavy metals.

Statistics speak for themselves; do you see that the public is concerned about these latest stats?

Pictured: Prof. Emmanuel Sinagra The latter being what I see as the only thing that can save us at this time.

Prof. Sinagra: I think the work of the World Health Organisation speaks for itself, such as plenty of research to indicate how detrimental air pollution is to our health.

Is there a seasonality here or a notable worse offender?

Appelgren: It’s a truly complex issue.

However, a lot of it boils down to a lack of enforcement and will to create and be part of the change. Fines for not having dust control in Malta at a construction site are a little bit more than €1,600. Of course, that doesn’t incentivise anyone to invest in the correct equipment. Additionally, the small risk of being fined plays a role here.

Tourism is more of an issue for the waste management sector; most tourists use public transport or co-ride in taxis which are regulated and in turn emit less. In Malta, traffic has been cited as the primary contributor of PM2.5 levels. The government keeps widening roads and building unsustainable roads with no thought about future infrastructure for alternative transport methods such as cycling or paths for pedestrians. Unfortunately, it is short-term thinking.

Prof. Sinagra: There can be several seasonal

Appelgren: No, there is no state of panic yet.

Many are still afraid to speak out, primarily if they work within the government. I wish that people understood that their frequent sickness, which they don’t suffer from when going abroad, is them being affected by the bad air quality in Malta but they’d rather not realise. It’s hard for people to accept that the air they breathe in is not good for them. They feel helpless.

Prof. Sinagra: I do not know whether it is through intrinsic indifference or through a sense of resignation; however, the public kicks up little fuss about say dusty making certain areas look like deserts. Very little fuss is made of stone-dressing operations which spew out a great deal of dust without any mitigation. I complained once and got a nasty gesture form a group of five workers.

Regarding other issues, traffic is generated by the public. We all complain about traffic but we are the traffic.

How do we compare to our European counterparts?

Appelgren: Abroad the concept of car-free city centres or at least discouraging people from bringing their car into centres is gradually taking off. I’m waiting to see that happen on a local level. Urban greenery is also lacking, which doesn’t only help to improve the air quality but also decreases the heat for people, giving importance to public health.

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

THE GOVERNMENT KEEPS WIDENING ROADS AND BUILDING UNSUSTAINABLE ROADS WITH NO THOUGHT ABOUT FUTURE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORT METHODS SUCH AS CYCLING OR PATHS FOR PEDESTRIANS. UNFORTUNATELY, IT IS SHORT-TERM THINKING Prof. Sinagra: The EU encourages a number of measures to reach desirable benchmarks which are outlined on the Europa websites.

The construction industry is booming. Is this affecting air quality/pollution? Are there any measures to monitor this?

Appelgren: In my opinion, there is very little enforcement. A resident can email photos of the law being broken but it is a slow process, and the fine is such a slap on the wrist when it comes to dust-related breaches that contractors don’t even care. I would like to see harsher penalties as well as the

Sources 1

State of the Environment Report 2018

2

State of the Environment Report 2018

3

Disentangling the contribution of Saharan dust and marine

aerosol to PM10 levels in the Central Mediterranean, MM Scerri,

K Kandler, S

Weinbruch, Atmospheric environment 147, 395-408)

4

Effect of fireworks on ambient air quality in Malta, R Camilleri,

AJ Vella Atmospheric Environment 44 (35), 4521-4527)

5

Fine dust emissions from soft stone quarrying in Malta, AJ Vella,

R Camilleri Xjenza 10, 47-54

ENVIRONMENT

withdrawal of permits when the law is not followed.

Prof. Sinagra: Monitoring should be taking place; however, if it is, it seems to be inefficient and not keeping up with the inordinate number of building sites run by an industry which seems to have no discipline.

Do you feel the construction industry is playing a big part in general pollution in Malta?

Appelgren: Yes, not only for air pollution but also noise pollution and mental health of the public. It is widely ignored, and soon, the workforce will get affected severely, and that would mean that money is lost. That might be the only time when action will be taken.

Prof. Sinagra: We do know stone-dressing as well as quarrying do produce large proportions of PM10 in the dust generated. 5 In and around towns and villages one can notice unmitigated stone grinding and dust being left at the mercy of the winds, not necessarily an issue for breathing problems.

However, the more dust on the roads, the higher resuspension through traffic of material which may become smaller and smaller falling into the PM10 (breathable) range.

In your opinion, what can be done to remediate our reduced levels of air quality?

Appelgren: Steps such as sustainable transportation methods should be on top of the agenda. Cycling should be encouraged, possibly even by helping companies who offer shower facilities and storage of bicycles to their employees with financial perks. And urban greenery projects with trees planted in the ground, not in pots where they die after a month or two.

Enforcement and harsher fines for construction dust and other debris going into public space should also be introduced.

The list is endless. The conclusion is that very little is done. The Maltese government would instead buy emission reduction credits when failing their EU targets. The

MONEY · 15

Maltese citizens are the victims of this, and the EU shouldn’t allow these targets to fail without the country doing its utmost to reach such targets.

Prof. Sinagra: Well, given the parameters of concern and what we can influence, I would like to see more mitigation for dust emissions from the construction industry and a reduction in NO2 and PM2.5 through reduction of the older diesel engines, say the pre-Euro versions. In terms of passenger and vehicles transporting light goods, these account for ca. 40% of PM10s of which a fraction will be PM2.5. A reduction in NO2 will also result from this measure. One can also take punitive fiscal measures to reduce vehicular traffic although it seems that politically, this is off the table.

About the interviewees Cami Applegren heads ‘CleanUp Malta’, which boasts of 8,500 members. She organised hundreds of clean-up campaigns across the island as well as creating awareness on environmental issues while pushing for legislative changes.

Prof Sinagra joined the Department of Chemistry at the University of Malta as a lecturer back in 1993, and in 1998 was appointed senior lecturer. In 2011, he became associate professor. His teaching interests have been in the areas of physical chemistry, polymer chemistry as well as environmental chemistry. He also holds the post of chairman of the Institute for Sustainable Energy. Prof Sinagra is a Fellow at the Institute of Science and Technology as well as at the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a chartered chemist and scientist through the Royal Society.

ISSUE 55

COVER STORY

16 · MONE Y

Line of defence MONEY interviews Harald Roesch, chief executive officer at Melita, on the service provider’s constant investment, its cloud-to-premises network experience and the layers of defence it is offering businesses to help mitigate cyber attack risks.

Is Melita ready for 5G and how does the company cope with a rapidly changing technological world?

We’ve invested a significant amount in our mobile network during 2018. As a result Melita is currently the only operator in Malta which has a 5G-ready mobile network. Although today there are only a handful of 5G-enabled phones available on the market, the number of models will grow through the rest of 2019 and beyond. As the availability of 5G smartphones increases, we are in an excellent position to give our customers the very best experience possible on a mobile network.

We’re equally well-placed in terms of broadband access via a fixed internet connection; Melita is the only network to offer 1,000 Mbps speeds nationwide across Malta and Gozo. This puts Malta in a unique position in Europe — none of our European neighbours has access to such powerful networks throughout the whole country.

Melita’s investment in its mobile and fixed networks puts us significantly ahead of the European Commission’s goals for 5G and gigabit connectivity.

Connectivity isn’t just about connecting people but also about machine-to-machine connections in what is termed as the Internet of Things (IoT). This segment is growing at such a rate that by next year it is predicted there will be more than 20 billion connected devices worldwide touching every sector, from manufacturing and healthcare, to finance and retail. Melita is also well-placed to help our customers with the fourth industrial revolution, since our 5G-ready mobile network is also NB-IoT and LTE-M-enabled.

Can you safely say that Melita has the lion’s share of the Maltese mobile market?

Melita is the market leader in TV and internet.

In mobile, Melita was the third operator to enter a market that was well developed with two strong brands already in place. Despite this challenge, we are seeing more and more individuals and businesses opting for Melita mobile. In the business segment this is a result of increased focus in this space but also because more satisfied business customers are promoting us as a provider of choice for business clients. Today we have 130,000 mobile subscribers, with the latest Malta Communications Authority figures1 revealing that we have 21% market share in mobile.

Many terms could be jargon for some. Can you elaborate, in layman's terms, on your new B2B services, Cloud Connect and DDoS Mitigation?

In layman’s terms a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is a form of cyberattack which may render a server, website or internet service unusable. For many businesses today, such a disruption can be highly costly, with impacts including downtime, customer frustration and both immediate and longer-term revenue loss.

It’s a sad reality that DDoS attacks are becoming more common and more complex, making them an increasing risk-factor for all businesses.

To help in managing this risk, Melita is offering enterprise-grade DDoS mitigation solutions through CenturyLink – one of the largest global connectivity networks. CenturyLink provides layers of defence through enhanced

network routing, rate limiting and filtering that can be paired with advanced networkbased detection and mitigation-scrubbing centre solutions. Perhaps some of those terms could be classed as jargon – put more simply, attack traffic is filtered out and good traffic is sent back to the customer via a dedicated Melita internet connection. Our enterprise customers that utilise this service are better equipped to stay connected to the internet, with their websites and critical applications up and running.

Turning to Cloud Connect, this is a service for our enterprise clients seeking a private connection from their offices in Malta to the cloud services provider of their choice.

Through our nationwide fibre optic network, Melita provides private connections to leading cloud providers including Microsoft, Amazon, Google and IBM. This results in a consistent and agile cloud-to-premises network experience. In addition to speed and reliability, the network also has an abundance of capacity, meaning there are no constraints on scalability or bandwidth-heavy workloads in the cloud.

Melita is offering Cloud Connect in partnership with Telia Carrier; with more than 65,000km of fibre assets across 280 Points of Presence (PoPs) in more than 115 cities and 35 countries worldwide, Telia Carrier’s service, combined with Melita’s resilient international network, is uniquely placed to support Maltese businesses looking to shift critical processes to the cloud using

1

https://www.mca.org.mt/articles/key-market-indicators-

electronic-communications-and-post-q1-2014-q4-2018

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

COVER STORY

This network was created specifically to create a wholesale fibre internet market in a country where penetration is still low.

This, combined with Melita’s experience in providing superfast internet services in Malta, created an excellent opportunity for growth.

…ON AVERAGE OUR CUSTOMERS GIVE US A RATING OF 8.9/10; IF WE WERE A HOTEL, ON TRIP ADVISOR, THIS WOULD GIVE US AN ‘EXCELLENT’ RATING, SO WE’RE DOING WELL

The initial response from customers in Italy has been positive — even more so because of the inclusion of SmartWiFi, in our service offering.

Melita was the first operator to introduce Plume technology to Europe when we launched in Malta in late 2018. We have now become the first operator to launch this service in Italy. Essentially, Plume delivers Adaptive WiFi™ which guarantees that Melita customers can enjoy superfast internet throughout their home. This is done by combining breakthrough cloudbased technology and Artificial Intelligence to deliver a comprehensive smart home services bundle. Adaptive WiFi gives you the fastest and most consistent WiFi experience on any device, anywhere in your home. The Plume service also includes an additional service, HomePass, which allows members to precisely control who gets onto their Wi-Fi networks, for how long, and what they can do. AI Security protects devices from suspicious content when they are connected to the internet to keep users safe online by protecting against cyberthreats such as phishing or malware.

direct and secure connections that bypass the public internet.

Many a time you hear clients grumble about the waiting time when calling a service provider to lodge a complaint or to have a query answered. How does Melita score in customer relations these days?

Our average answering speed for calls to our customer care team is 52 seconds in 2019 and was 56 seconds during 2018.

However, we believe that customer service isn’t just about the speed of answering the phone; it’s far more about the quality of the solution provided, and this is reflected in our Customer Service Promise, where we commit to handling all queries in the best possible way. We know that customers are much more interested in getting their question answered correctly, or their problem resolved quickly, than in getting the call answered a few seconds more quickly. Therefore, we focus on improving our systems and processes while empowering our customer service advisors to give an informative, satisfactory answer. We then ask our customers for their feedback every time they are in touch with our customer care, visit our shops or have a

M O N E Y · 17

technician come to their home. On average our customers give us a rating of 8.9/10; if we were a hotel, on Trip Advisor, this would give us an ‘Excellent’ rating, so we’re doing well.

We also offer a variety of digital channels to get in touch, be it instant chat on our website, Facebook Messenger, our online Help Centre, our Community Forum, or via our app, MyMelita.

Can you tell us about the international landscape such as the gigabit internet launch in Italy, and IoT in Germany?

It has certainly been a very busy and innovative few months for Melita. Melita Italia, a fully owned subsidiary of Melita Limited, is now up and running and providing gigabit internet services to several cities in Italy which are covered by the Open Fibre network.

What is the biggest challenge telecom companies are facing?

There are a number of challenges facing operators in Malta. The primary challenge remains the economies of scale which guarantee that the relative costs incurred to upgrade our infrastructure to meet changing demands will always be considerably higher than in most other countries. We also continue to face the challenge of illegal TV services which are very prevalent in Malta. We are committed to ensuring that Malta remains at the forefront of connectivity in Europe, while offering excellent, legal TV services, including the best Sports TV package available in Europe, so that we continue to give our customers every possible reason to remain our customers, and to recommend our services.

C L I M AT E C H A N G E

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ISSUE 55

A resident academic at the Faculty of Laws, University of Malta, Simone is Malta's Ambassador for Climate Action and chair of the Climate Action Board.

Generation Climate Prof. Simone Borg, Malta’s Ambassador for Climate Action and chair of the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, speaks about the Paris Agreement and what it takes to unleash the potential of such an agreement.

Way back in the mid-1970s, the scientific community was already buzzing with concern that fossil-fuel emissions generated by human activities were pumping so much greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that they were unbalancing its natural composition, leading to climate change.

leaders have championed the zero net emissions pledge but climate action requires heavy investment, which some low-income states simply cannot afford without external support while other countries are too busy fire-fighting more urgent needs such as eradicating poverty, famine and conflict.

Commonly referred to as GHGs, greenhouse gases are so called because they trap heat.

Contrary to popular belief, they may not necessarily be “air pollutants”. The most common GHGs, carbon dioxide and methane, occur naturally in the atmosphere and are an essential component in the planet’s carbon cycle. It is their artificial increase caused by human activities that is leading to climate change. The Paris Agreement of 2015 aims precisely to set the clock back and return the planet to its natural state in terms of zero net emissions of GHGs that are induced by human activity.

In the higher-income states, solutions mainly depend upon changing consumption patterns, which cannot happen overnight, or upon new technology alternatives, which may not yet be commercially feasible or which undermine competitiveness, unless they are adopted across the board. In other words, sometimes doing what it takes to become climate-friendly is simply and literally a bus ride away but it may also lead to serious socioeconomic repercussions, if there is no just transition.

Nearly 50 years after the first scientific reports highlighting the climate change problems resulting from uncurbed fossil-fuel emissions, the conclusion of the Paris Agreement on December 12, 2015, was met with much fanfare as the long-awaited deal that would ultimately regulate state behaviour by taking the necessary action to mitigate and adapt to climate change. It is not surprising however that the jubilation of politicians, and the thousands of negotiators representing the various states, largely composed of legal advisers and technocrats, greatly contrasted with the lukewarm reception the same agreement was given by some scientists and NGOs that branded it with the (in)famous quip, “too little too late”.

Since Paris, many political and business

The coming of age of Generation Climate, the movement initiated by Greta Thunberg, has managed to motivate tens of thousands of young and not so young people, to call upon both public and private decision-makers, to honour the Paris Agreement. The frustration expressed by the youth and children on strike is expressed in very simple terms: do what needs to be done, rather than keep pussy footing as to who should do what, by when. As is usual with youth, their patience is running thin and they are right, science demonstrates it is essential to achieve zero net emissions if we want to harness the increase in temperature to not more than 2 degrees Celsius and preferably to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century.

The Paris Agreement is often criticised as being too weak to meet the urgency of the situation but as with any legal instrument, its

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

C L I M AT E C H A N G E

THE COMING OF AGE OF GENERATION CLIMATE, THE MOVEMENT INITIATED

BY GRETA THUNBERG, HAS MANAGED TO MOTIVATE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF YOUNG AND NOT SO YOUNG PEOPLE, TO CALL UPON BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVATE DECISION-MAKERS, TO HONOUR THE PARIS AGREEMENT potential is unleashed when there is sufficient human goodwill to do so. Governments remain the major actors to take mitigation and adaptation measures and to ensure a level playing field such that the socioeconomic burdens to achieve zero net emissions are shared equally and equitably by all sectors. For instance, decisions on the energy generation mix rest primarily with governments but other sectors like emissions from buildings and transport require behavioural changes by users also. This is where GHG reductions are proving to be most challenging in many countries. For instance, it

is estimated that in Europe buildings account for 40% to 45% of energy consumption and therefore contribute significantly to GHG emissions. In countries like Malta, with an economy that is dependent on the services sector, energy efficiency in buildings is a major goal scorer in reaching our targets to reduce emissions. Achieving zero net emissions is not only about conforming with regulations however. Budget incentives to generate solar energy in buildings have been instrumental to improve our track record in meeting our legal obligations under the Paris Agreement but they also generated green

MONEY ¡ 19

jobs, numerous market opportunities and enabled the business community as well as property owners to become drivers of change.

There are two ways governments, businesses and civil society may choose to look at climate action. Either as a series of legal obligations, or as an opportunity to achieve planetary and hence human well-being, by championing innovation, resource sustainability and efficiency. In the end, climate action is all about achieving sustainable development. Governments may provide incentives but it will depend upon the sectoral operators to make the most of them and create niche opportunities for themselves to place, like for example, innovative building materials on the market, to develop technologies for water efficiency management. Just as Malta became a leader in reverse osmosis technology in the past, energy efficiency in buildings may provide the opportunity for our building sector to develop state-of-the-art zero net emissions technology that is exported outside our shores. The opportunities for research, job creation and innovation are real tangible opportunities that can drive the process, the ball is our court. Governments, business and civil society are all players in this game of do or die.

CONSTRUCTION

20 · MONEY

Simone, recently elected president of the Chamber of Architects, has served on the Building Industry Consultative Council (BICC) Advisory Board, the Planning Authority’s Users’ Committee, and the Building Regulation Board within the past 15 years.

STUMB -LING BLOCK Simone Vella Lenicker, president of the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers (Kamra tal-Periti), delves into the need for a modern building and construction regulation framework.

In its seminal publication ‘The Urban Challenge – Our Quality of Life and the Built Environment’ (2007), the Chamber of Architects had highlighted the need to improve the quality of construction. It had stated: “New regulations are necessary and welcome but should be backed by adequate research and funding to ensure they truly provide value for money to society. The establishment of a ‘Construction Platform’ would provide a clearer reference point for developers, design professionals and the public. Continual training and professional development, the certification of tradesmen and the licensing and classification of service providers will help ensure that construction practice improves. An adequate level of

protection and cover for all stakeholders will ensure clients’ interests are better protected”.

The Chamber of Architects has been calling for an overhaul of the regulations that govern the construction industry ever since. It pushed for the consolidation of the various fragmented pieces of legislation, bodies and departments regulating the industry under one legislative and administrative umbrella to ensure higher standards in the industry, to bring it in line with modern practice and standards, and to ensure the protection and sustainability of the significant investment made when properties are constructed, bought or rented out.

ISSUE 55

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

CONSTRUCTION

MONEY · 21

Finally, in the last quarter of 2018, the Ministry for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects published a White Paper proposing the establishment of a Building and Construction Authority, a proposal which the Chamber of Architects welcomed.

Moreover, the Chamber emphasised the need to separate planning and development permit issues from those related to building standards and regulations, not just at inception stage, but right through to end-oflife considerations.

Over the years, the planning process has reduced itself from one related to the achievement of overarching planning goals and policies, to one of development permits, with a vast number of regulations pertaining strictly to the construction phase of a project becoming intertwined within the planning process itself. This not only burdens the planning permit process unnecessarily by requiring technical detail which is premature at this stage of a project, but also detracts from the focus of what planning should be about. It has also resulted in the mistaken impression that obtaining a planning permit is the be-all and end-all of the existence of architects, when in reality the more complex processes, and those for which the architect carries very onerous responsibilities, come after the planning permit is obtained.

A major lacuna in the industry is the complete lack of adequately trained and qualified →

OVER THE YEARS, THE PLANNING PROCESS HAS REDUCED ITSELF FROM ONE RELATED TO THE ACHIEVEMENT OF OVERARCHING PLANNING GOALS AND POLICIES, TO ONE OF DEVELOPMENT PERMITS…

22 ¡ MONEY

personnel. Of all the professionals and tradespersons involved in a construction project, only four of the key figures are, to one extent or another, formally qualified.

Foremost is the architect and civil engineer, who very often ends up getting the blame for anything that goes wrong on site and whose responsibilities are incorrectly assumed to cover everything from site cleanliness to structural integrity. The other is the mason, who is not only inadequately trained to deal with the complexity of contemporary building techniques and materials, but who is completely unregulated after obtaining a licence; not to mention the added complication that, until recently, a formal list of licensed masons was not available in the public domain. Then there are the mechanical and electrical engineers, who are often not involved in small to mediumscale projects, and are very often engaged after the main structural works have been finalised. The fourth figure is the project supervisor required to be appointed under the Occupational Health and Safety Authority (OHSA) regulations, although the law also permits the developer to take on such a role, if he or she deems him/herself to be competent in this regard.

No other participant in the industry is regulated in the slightest manner.

CONSTRUCTION

Article 1638 of the Civil Code places the responsibility for structural stability jointly on the architect and the contractor, however whereas architects carry a warrant and are subject to a Code of Professional Conduct, contractors are not regulated at all. There is therefore an urgent need for registration and classification of contractors, which should be based on competences and qualifications as well as considerations relating to their workforce, their equipment and capacity.

This situation is unacceptable, and the industry cannot move forward until such glaring deficiencies are properly addressed.

The Chamber of Architects has taken a proactive role in ensuring that this important industry for the country’s economy not only performs well financially, but also, and more importantly, in terms of qualitative criteria.

There is a limit to how much people are willing to pay for poorly built properties, and the main stumbling block here is the complete lack of adequate building regulations which set a benchmark for the performance of a building and its components.

In view of this, the Chamber of Architects recently launched a document with its proposals for a modern building and construction regulation framework, which has so far been well received by both

ISSUE 55

THE RECENT SPATE OF INCIDENTS ON CONSTRUCTION SITES HAS SET OFF ALARM BELLS. FINGERPOINTING WILL NOT GET US ANYWHERE‌ professionals and the industry. These proposals seek to provide support to the profession and to the industry as a whole by formalising standards which, in general, reflect best practice approaches already generally followed by the profession despite them not being prescribed.

The document is intended to provide the legislator with a comprehensive basis for taking this important step forward. It includes a thorough review of the current situation, analyses the problems, and provides solutions which are also informed by research on systems which have been tried and tested in other countries.

The recent spate of incidents on construction sites has set off alarm bells. Finger-pointing will not get us anywhere. The profession itself has been calling for a much-needed review of the laws which govern it in order to bring it in line with international requirements, and the Chamber of Architects has been working hard to ensure that such changes will be implemented in the coming months. All other players in the industry must do the same if we are to achieve a holistic overhaul of the industry. The Chamber, as a key stakeholder, is committed to provide its full assistance and support to ensure a smooth and professional transition towards better quality across the board.

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A N A LY S I S

24 · MONE Y

ISSUE 55

Jordan Portelli is an economist and a portfolio manager for a local asset management company.

DWELL(ing) ON THE PROPERTY BOOM

Economist Jordan Portelli analyses the realities of the current property boom and its sustainability.

Over the past few years Malta has experienced a boom in the property market, mainly triggered by economic expansion.

In fact, data published for 2018 by Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistical office responsible to provide statistical information to institutions of the European Union showed that Malta’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth was among the top five within the euro area at 6.7%. Among the contributors to this important figure is the property market. In reality, it would be interesting to identify the factors that triggered the current economic boom. As

with many other economic factors, property pricing is a demand and supply force.

The demand aspect Looking at the demand aspect, one would certainly look at the current domestic situation, but also what the future expectations are in terms of demand.

Factually, Malta has experienced a remarkable expansion in the financial services and gaming industry, which for 2018, accounted to circa 18% of total GDP. Both industries had their fair share in terms of the

value-added preposition and undoubtedly the property market wasn’t the exception.

In practical terms, both industries employ a considerable number of foreign workers with the latter tapping into the rental property market, thus increasing the demand which, in turn, pushed up the prices of rent.

However, a very important economic factor, the domestic unemployment rate, has also had a remarkable impact on the property market. Latest data released by Eurostat shows that the unemployment rate in April was the fifth lowest among the 28 member

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

states at 3.5%. Looking at the economic perspective, with such a low unemployment rate, which economists would define as the natural rate of unemployment, i.e. a level which is close to full employment, it would be difficult to hold to the said growth levels.

But despite the many who might argue that the surge of foreign workers will pressure wage growth to the downside, it is an economic fact that such workers are needed if we want to sustain high levels of economic growth.

Furthermore, from the demand aspect, probably at the expense of other Mediterranean countries, Malta has experienced an exponential growth in the tourism sector over the years. This phenomenon was particularly triggered

A N A LY S I S

by the introduction of low-cost carriers in 2006, when the government at the time had introduced a route support scheme and subsidised these low-cost airlines that opened new routes. Undoubtedly, the main aim was to boost tourism. Such decision was crucial to see the ever-increasing passengers passing through Malta International Airport (MIA). Recent data released by MIA as at 2018 showed that passenger movements reached 6.8 million from the 6 million in 2017, a 13.2% increase, while since 2016 it registered a 33% increase. This increase in tourism inbounds has led to a surge in direct rentals, in addition to other online hospitality services, namely Airbnb which over the past years has increased its popularity domestically. This surely is another factor which continued to pressure property prices upward.

MONEY ¡ 25

Lastly from the demand side, another very important factor which had a huge impact on the property market is the low interest rate saga. Following a recession way back in 2009, leading central banks, as expected, took on a very important role to instigate economic growth. Indeed, one of the monetary tools put in force by central banks was to lower interest rates. In fact, interest rates have been on a downward trajectory since 2009, from just over 4% to today’s 0% level in line with a stagnation of economic expansion. However, the very low deposit rate returns are more of a concern for investors. Put simply, as opposed to the golden years where investors could generate attractive returns by placing their savings into fixed deposits, today an investor is faced with very low returns. Thus given the capital surplus, also due to the said →

A N A LY S I S

26 · MONEY

ISSUE 55

THERE IS A STRATA WITHIN THE COMMUNITY WHICH IS EXPERIENCING SOCIAL IMBALANCES… THE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY ASPECT MAINLY FOR THE MIDDLE TO LOWER CLASS HAS BECOME AN ISSUE OF CONCERN unattractive returns, investors have shifted to higher yielding venues such as the domestic property market, which in turn inched property prices higher. A very simple and practical example: if an investor today invests in a local government bond with a maturity of 10 years, he would generate a return of circa 0.82%, if held till maturity. On the contrary, if the same investor has invested in a property for rental purposes, taking a conservative approach, he would lock a yearly return after tax of an average of 4.5%.

The said attractive returns have pushed many to leverage themselves by buying a second property in order to exploit the current boom.

This is clearly visible if one had to look at the increase in bank loan advances to customers of leading banks in Malta The supply aspect It is a fact that countries pass through economic cycles and Malta is no exception. It is important that the current property boom is monitored very closely though. The current demand might not be sustained in the future.

Over the past years we’ve been seeing an ever-increasing supply, while demand might have slowed in its pace. When looking at the annual statistics for 2018, published by the Planning Authority, whereby it approved

12,885 dwellings, higher than the 2007 record, one might argue whether supply will surpass demand in the future. This could trigger very serious consequences, not only to the property market, but also to the entire economy.

The affordability dilemma Contrary to those who have the opportunity to leverage themselves and seek the current golden opportunity there is a strata within the community which is experiencing social imbalances. Indeed, the housing affordability aspect mainly for the middle to lower class has become an issue of concern.

Primarily, the increase in rental prices is compromising the standard of living of those being faced with rental increases. Secondly, first-time buyers are struggling to find bank support in order to fulfil their desire of having their own property, given the exuberating higher property prices with respect to their gross income. In fact, many have been vocal on this social imbalance, which pushed the government to act to possibly mitigate such a reality, by subsidising rental prices to those in need, while helping first-time buyers by offering duty reliefs.

Ultimately, despite the fact that the

increasing trend of construction seems to have more legs to run, one might be very mindful when looking at the possible implications. The basic economic theory of demand/supply imbalances can change instantly, given that the Maltese economy has over the years been built on sectors that are very sensitive to regulation.

Predominately, the attractive tax regime offered by Malta as a jurisdiction was an important factor in attracting foreign direct investment, which was also important for the local property market uptick. Thus the recent waves of pressures by the European Commission to have a common tax regime is one to be monitored as this can have serious implications for Malta’s economy and thus also for the property market.

From an economic perspective, a word of caution is warranted. Over the years Malta has shifted from being a manufacturing country to a more services-oriented country and thus it is imperative that the government continues to preserve through its forces the sustainability of our offerings, in addition to work on more expansion, in order to sustain economic growth. This in turn would probably sustain the property market, given a demand/supply balance.

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LEG AL

28 · MONEY

ISSUE 55

Edward is a senior partner at Fenech & Fenech Advocates, specialising in litigation for the past 37 years, and practising in Civil and Commercial Litigation and Property Law.

A court judgment last May could turn out to be a game-changer for owners whose properties have been occupied for generations. Edward DeBono of Fenech & Fenech Advocates explains the implications to MONEY. The recent landmark judgment has offered a ray of hope to numerous owners whose properties have been rented out, sometimes for generations, at paltry rents.

recent years by our local courts, albeit only after impregnable case law had first been established by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

rural tenements cannot possibly pass the test of proportionality for tenements worth hundreds of thousands of euros if not millions.

The judgment was delivered by Judge Lawrence Mintoff presiding over the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional Jurisdiction in the names Anthony Debono et vs Avukat Generali et, concerning the constitutionality of pre-1st June 1995 nonrequisitioned residential leases.

The ECHR has, over the years, struck down various Maltese laws which gave protection to sitting tenants at grossly unfair terms, to the detriment of owners, including – for example — the infamous Act XXIII of 1979 and Chapter 158 of the Laws of Malta which allowed tenants to convert a temporary emphyteutical concession (ċens temporanju) into a perpetual lease, which lease could also be inherited by family members residing with the tenant.

Despite the ECHR’s repeated calls for the Maltese government to “put an end to the systemic violation of the right of property”, the Maltese Parliament has remained indifferent. The only reaction came in August of 2018, with the introduction of yet another repressive amendment to the law, in the form of Act No. XXVII of 2018.

At stake were all those owners whose properties had leases prior to 1995. These long-suffering owners have for generations had to pay succession duty taxes on their properties at market rates and yet receive paltry compensation in rents capped by Ordinance XVI of 1944 to the market rate as at August 4, 1914.

Owners of all properties are to receive fair compensation for their property if the tenants are to continue being protected in their tenancy rights. Without striking a fair balance between the rights of the owner and those of the tenant, one cannot possibly save our system from continually being lambasted by the European Court of Human Rights of unconstitutionality.

This judgment has not come in a vacuum.

Similar cases have been delivered already in

Previous case law has dealt with commercial premises, band clubs, and leases of decontrolled residential premises, as well as leases emanating from temporary emphyteutical concessions, all of which have been repeatedly declared unconstitutional by our Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

A number of lawsuits are also pending before the First Hall of the Civil Court in its Constitutional Jurisdiction concerning agricultural leases, and although these cases are yet to be decided, it is evident that these leases too will be declared unconstitutional, as a few euros per annum as rent for fields, farmhouses and other

This law gave tenants of a dwelling under a title of lease created by virtue of Chapter 158 of the Laws of Malta, the right to continue occupying the property by paying a maximum rental of up to 2% of the value of the property, as established by the Rent Regulation Board, subject to a rather lenient ‘means test’.

The unconstitutionality of Act XXIII of 1979 was clear for all to see. It could never be deemed constitutional to impose a forced landlord/tenant relationship upon a landlord who had entered into a temporary emphyteutical concession for an agreed period of time (most often to avoid the prospect of having his property requisitioned) when the 1979 law arbitrarily did away with the agreement between the parties and granted the tenant a perpetual leasehold, at a rent which effectively could never exceed

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

double the amount of ground-rent originally agreed to between the parties.

Similarly, owners who had faced requisition orders also had indisputable human rights claims. Slowly but surely, case law has been established in this respect, and owners of properties affected by the 1979 law of requisition orders, have, to a certain extent, been vindicated.

The few who instituted proceedings have received compensation – but whether it is adequate or not is another question.

Owners of commercial properties leased prior to June 1, 1995 subject to the draconian provisions of Chapter 69, have recently also been successful in their quest for justice.

The significance of the Anthony Debono et case, however, is that it extended this rationale to cover pre-June 1, 1995 residential non-requisitioned and non-decontrolled leases, which are regulated by Chapter 69 of the Laws of Malta, and which to date had never been successfully challenged.

LEG AL

In the Anthony Debono case, the Attorney General argued that since the lease was entered into voluntarily, and since the owners knew that they would have to keep on renewing the lease indefinitely, they could not claim that this constituted a breach of their fundamental human rights.

The court did not uphold this line of defence and noted that the applicants had no way of circumventing the repressive provisions of Chapter 69 of the Laws of Malta and Ordinance XVI of 1944 of the Laws of Malta.

Moreover, the present owners had inherited the property burdened with a protected lease to which they had not given consent. In spite of this, they were expected to pay inheritance tax on the full market value of the property, without any real prospect of ever being able to reclaim the effective possession of the said property as the nephew of the original tenant inherited the tenancy rights of his grandmother who passed away before the amendments of Act X of 2009.

This basically meant that younger tenants could outlive the owners who would have to pay succession duty for two or three generations without receiving any adequate compensation.

The court awarded the owners €20,000 in damages, payable by the Attorney General, and declared that the tenants may no longer rely on Chapter 69 of the Laws of Malta and Act X of 2009 in order to continue renewing their lease.

This effectively opens the floodgates for other landlords to challenge all pre-June 1, 1995 residential and commercial leases, on the basis that the maximum

MONEY · 29

WITHOUT STRIKING A FAIR BALANCE BETWEEN THE RIGHTS OF THE OWNER AND THOSE OF THE TENANT, ONE CANNOT POSSIBLY SAVE OUR SYSTEM FROM CONTINUALLY BEING LAMBASTED BY THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF UNCONSTITUTIONALITY

rent receivable as regulated by law is disproportionate with market forces and that landlords are forced into an owner/tenant relationship for generations.

It is high time that our legislators draft laws appropriate to the times where the rights of the owners and the tenants are both fully protected, striking a fair balance between their respective rights and obligations and ensuring full respect to the fundamental human rights of the citizens of this country as protected by the European Convention on Fundamental Human Rights.

It is to be noted that our Constitution falls short of striking this balance as the judgments of our Constitutional Court state that Article 37 of the Constitution does not accord the relative protection of owners vis-à-vis their tenants, but it is the European Convention in the First Article of the First Protocol which grants Maltese citizens protection from these draconian laws which have been enacted along the decades.

OPINION

30 · MONEY

ISSUE 55

Manuel is a political blogger who writes for The Sunday Times and manueldelia.com.

Political analyst Manuel Delia mulls on the consequences of overdevelopment we as a nation are yet to face as a result of letting things go over our head and our short-sighted mentality in this regard.

‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ is a much maligned idiom. It does not democratise aesthetics. It does not give everyone the right to decide that what they like is beautiful.

It resigns itself instead to the fact that the repulsive, the objectionable, the damaging and the rotten will still find enthusiastic buyers. And they will judge it beautiful.

Democratisation is often confused with vulgarisation. And there’s hardly anything more vulgar than the jumbling of concepts.

Consider for example the modernist notion of functionalism. The aesthetic choice is pragmatic, wary of excess, mindful of the use of space, waste-averse and keen to secure the vitality of the environment through its sustained, if not necessarily sustainable, use.

No harm in any of that. But functionalism is then used as an excuse to rank functions themselves according to some utilitarian index which is restricted to variables that are short-sighted and soulless.

The Middle Ages of Europe were functionalist too. The function of safety built castles and city walls. The function of administrationbuilt palaces and courts. The function of worship and securing a place in heaven — then believed to be the greatest function of all — built cathedrals, the greatest buildings

of our heritage. Cathedrals were built over generations, spanning centuries of ingenuity and a thousand days of labour delivered on credit to be cashed in the afterlife.

The buildings outlived the faith that financed them. They stand tall bearing witness to a time gone by, when God was king. The graven images that told stories instantly recognisable to the contemporaries of the sculptors are now faded, obscure, understandable only to holders of arcane knowledge, vague flickers in a collective memory that wanes.

And yet they are a thing of beauty not just because of their size or their age or because of the stories they tell and few do remember. But because they make a claim to immortality as those who laid their foundations had no hope of seeing them roofed over in their lifetime, and that did not matter to them. Because the present is a fickle moment of doubt but the future is certain. Standing in a human chain shuffling buckets of water picked out of a river far beyond sight to douse a fire that burns below the other horizon, those builders wanted to be a part of something greater than themselves.

The transcendence of buildings is not limited to temples and churches that reach up to

the divine. From the sprawling estates to the family hovels of the poor, a property that is nurtured to carry a family name beyond the death of its builders is also a claim on immortality.

Private property after all is the artificial notion that seeks to defy the finality of death.

The cliché is you will not take anything with you when you die. But that is no excuse for sloth and despair. If you cannot build to take with you, you build to leave behind.

In buildings, then, there is an investment in memory, the building of a legacy, the challenge against time.

Timelessness in buildings is not necessarily hostile to private property. Nor is it inconsistent with function and prioritising use over isolated yearnings for appearance.

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

OPINION

Timelessness is only inconsistent with greed, short-sightedness, the inability to think beyond now. Materialism is unfairly dissed.

But that’s because it is confused with an immanentism that cares only for today and instead of challenging time becomes its slave.

This is what Malta is suffering right now. We behave like those Dark Age Romans who scavenged classical buildings for stones to build their improvised housing. We give our backs to the future we think does not exist and instead live in the present, scavenging and consuming our resources to subsist and then congratulate ourselves on how far we have come. Kenneth Clarke famously said he was not sure how to define ‘civilisation’.

But as he stood at the feet of the Notre Dame in Paris he said he would recognise it when he saw it. We do not recognise civilisation in most of what we build. Instead we see a downfall: environmental, cultural, social.

Our neighbour, the once great jewel of Palermo, experienced this crashing down of civilisation in the 1950s and 1960s. It is no coincidence that the Palermitani used the term from the end of the Western Roman Empire to describe that phase of their history: ‘the sack of Palermo’. The similarities of that experience to what we’re going through are uncanny.

WE BEHAVE LIKE THOSE DARK AGE ROMANS WHO SCAVENGED CLASSICAL BUILDINGS FOR STONES TO BUILD THEIR IMPROVISED HOUSING… WE GIVE OUR BACKS TO THE FUTURE WE THINK DOES NOT EXIST AND INSTEAD LIVE IN THE PRESENT…

Up to the 1950s, Palermo was nestled in groves and surrounded by a romantic landscape which now exists only in paintings and old photographs. A “draft town plan” was drawn up in 1954 declaring principles of conservation, aesthetics and careful, sustainable town planning. The qualifier “draft” was presented as an opportunity to invite consultation, feedback and a democratic iterative process.

But it was really intended to open up for exceptions, personal favours and a corrupt retail of development permits that would not have been allowed if what was still in draft form had become law. The town plan was not made into law until 1962. The interim eight years became a wanton rout, a stampede without order and without a goal, the erection of concrete boxes in a jungle of maximised space ostensibly functional but really merely ugly, unsightly, unfriendly. Anything which was up to a day younger than 50 was knocked

MONE Y · 31

down and “redeveloped” into grey hulks that still dominate the lurid landscape that surrounds that city.

This orgy of destruction, mislabelled as a construction boom, was not a random spontaneous incident. It was a conspiracy arranged between people in politics, in planning offices, in the construction business and in organised crime. A network of freemasonry became the interface between previously unrelated sources of power: politics, business and crime.

The criminals laundered their proceeds in concrete, the developers profited from the activity, the planners and politicians lined their pockets. Greed ended in tears. Names like Giovanni Gioia, Salvo Lima and Vito Ciancimino ended in disgrace or in pools of blood in roadside shootings.

But the tears that will always be shed after the profiteers and the corrupt are forgotten are in the choked-up melancholy of Palermitani of the future, heirs of a diamond that has been spoiled by incompetent cutters who dug too deep and patched their gluttony with cement.

If you think that what is happening to us here right now has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.

Local Plans, that are supposed to be legally binding documents regulating land use and defining the limits of construction and the aesthetic values that should govern it, have been “under review” for six years. Policies on petrol stations, hotel expansions, quarries and shooting ranges have been in “draft” form for six years.

The notion of a Structure Plan has been struck off the statute for six years. This has created an opening for exceptions to be made, ad hoc arrangements to be secured, nudges and winks to be accommodated. In place of a challenge to time, we are experiencing its squandering. We quarry our past to profit in the moment, leaving behind us a legacy and a memory that will be cursed for generations.

In a thousand years, a future Kenneth Clarke will stand in front of Tower Road in Sliema and though she’ll struggle to define ‘civilisation’, she will say she knows for sure ‘it doesn’t look like this’.

H E A LT H & S A F E T Y

32 ¡ MONEY

ISSUE 55

Aldo is a graduate in Occupational Health and Safety, and graduate member of the IOSH, UK. He is also one of the very few occupational H&S specialists appointed by Court on HSE incidences and fatalities.

KNOW SAFETY, NO PAIN.

In the light of a string of incidents in the construction industry, Aldo Busuttil, director at AME Health and Safety Services, emphasises the importance of not only meeting health and safety standards, but exceeding them.

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

One of the main legal obligations of the project owner is that before commencing any works, the project owner must appoint a competent person to act as project supervisor on health and safety matters for every project undertaken. Not any person can fulfill the role of project supervisor. In fact, the law expressly requires the project supervisor to have both academic qualifications and experience, including suitable training and sufficient knowledge, and skill for the safe performance of the specific task or work required. Why is it important to have a project supervisor? What is his/her role? What does the project owner stand to benefit by appointing a project supervisor? These are three questions that are often asked.

Apart from the legal obligation, the violation of which carries a hefty fine, the project supervisor shall assume all health and safety responsibilities throughout the project and has the legal obligation to take any necessary action to ensure that health and safety is always observed by all personnel. The other legal obligations of the project owner are outlined in the same Legal Notice 88 of 2018 and these include following all instructions given by the project supervisor and warning in writing contractor/s who do not follow their legal responsibilities related to health and safety on site.

Contractors have legal responsibilities to observe and safeguard as well. They must always ensure that they adopt a safe system of works. One must emphasise that the law sees the contractor as an employer which also adds to the contractor’s responsibilities; in fact, every contractor must fully observe Act 27 of 2000, paragraph 6 (1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority of Malta (OHSA). It is important to point out that employees have their responsibilities as well which are spelt out in paragraph 7 (1) of the previously mentioned Act and include that they need to follow instructions given by their respective employer and to follow all recommendations mentioned during the training sessions provided by their employer while adopting a safe system of works.

Therefore, it is imperative that contractors ensure that all their workers are properly trained on all jobs and tasks being carried out. This can only be achieved through proper

H E A LT H & S A F E T Y

MONEY · 33

and adequate training. In fact, we encourage our clients to invest in training and utilise the funds allocated by government precisely for this type of training.

Documentation One question that is often raised is about the health and safety documentation required. Typical documentation includes Construction Notification Forms, Health and Safety Plans, Risk Assessments, Safe Work Method Statements, Health and Safety Policies, Training, Safety Management System, among others. Every document has a specific scope, ultimately offering the proper environment to work safely and at minimum risk.

Procedures required prior to development Before commencing any works, engaging a health and safety consultant at the design stage of the project is highly recommended.

Having a proper health and safety set-up in place at design stage will help to avoid and address issues that may occur during the duration of the project. Risk assessments carried out at commencement stage are also key as these help to indicate hazards or risks at the outset, which hazards and risks will be complemented with the respective control measures and corrective measures that might be required.

Recommendations to improve health and safety on sites In the first six months of this year, a total of 1,599 non-fatal accidents and three fatal accidents were recorded, 14.6% of which occurred in the construction industry. In 2018, a total of 3,242 non-fatal accidents and one fatal accident was recorded, 15.3% of which occurred in the construction industry.

This is official data issued by the National Statistics Office.

One of the key fundamentals to effective health and safety management is training and effective engagement. Training and engagement helps people to understand why health and safety is there to protect them.

The bottom line in safety is as simple as ABC. Always Be Careful.

IN THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF THIS YEAR, A TOTAL OF 1,599 NONFATAL ACCIDENTS AND THREE FATAL ACCIDENTS WERE RECORDED, 14.6% OF WHICH OCCURRED IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

The scope of this article is to raise awareness and give information about health and safety at construction sites. Construction works and sites are primarily regulated by Legal Notice 88 of 2018 of the Occupational Health and Safety Authority of Malta (OHSA) - Work Place (Minimum Health and Safety Requirements for Work at Construction Sites) Regulations, 2018.

This legal notice outlines all the legal responsibilities of the Project Owner (which the law terms as “Client”), the Project Supervisor and the Contractor respectively.

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THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

PROMO

MONEY · 35

MUZA: WHAT LAY BENEATH Veronica Micallef, Heritage Malta architect and project manager, speaks to MONEY about the challenges of the project and the surprises that came about while the project was underway.

500-year-old buildings are intrinsically energy efficient. Use and selection of construction material, construction methodology and details adopted by masons and architects back then were chosen in response to Malta’s external environment.

What were the main challenges of the project?

The challenges were plenty. However, the main challenge was to achieve the right balance to accommodate and make accessible our national collection within a Grade 1 scheduled property. The restoration and the revealing of hidden historical layers of the Auberge d’Italie were central to the project.

Any discoveries along the way imposed several challenges as these would generally have required an extensive redesign. Redesign would involve changes in architectural layouts, mechanical and electrical infrastructure, gallery layouts and interpretation, just to mention a few.

Consequently, constant coordination between client, architects, curators, engineers and contractors was key throughout the whole duration of the project.

Is the environment controlled to preserve the artefacts on exhibit?

All the internal environment within the gallery spaces is centrally controlled via a Building Management System (BMS). This ensures that all the artefacts are exhibited within a stable internal environment. The BMS flags any fluctuations in internal conditions and automatically mitigates any deficiencies, such as a shift in internal temperatures.

Is the fact that the building is 'green' make things more difficult?

The project has maximised on the inherent energy efficiency measures which were built within the historic fabric and on the intrinsic passive energy efficient design features, while ensuring an optimum environment, both for the museum artefacts within and for its visitors in general.

The chosen strategy has a twofold objective.

Firstly, it reduces the building’s energy demand by means of its inherent energy efficient features. Secondly, the new energy efficient infrastructural system supports and adjusts any deficiency which the building’s inherent passive energy efficient systems might experience from time to time, especially in the case of any extreme weather conditions and environments.

Since the building is a historic one, did you come across a load of surprises in the process?

The beauty when working within a historic site is precisely this – what the building is holding in store! The building itself, in parallel with constant archival research revealed a wealth of new data, facts, insights, techniques and stories which now have been incorporated within the restoration philosophy.

Surprises were plenty throughout the whole project. Within the first couple of months into the project, it was evident that the Auberge d’Italie had plenty of stories to tell. The restoration philosophy had to adapt itself

THE BUILDING ITSELF [...] REVEALED A WEALTH OF NEW DATA, FACTS, INSIGHTS, TECHNIQUES AND STORIES... to reveal the multiple layers of the building.

Surgical interventions have been carried out throughout to reveal multiple layers without the loss or undermining of others.

Interventions enhance the interpretation of this historic building.

Are there any features of the building that stand out?

Every discovery is important; however, some do stand out more than others. Such as the discovery of the Grand Staircase – La Scala Grande, the former pitched roof extending over the double height Camerone, the former kitchen of the Auberge and a sizeable pointed arch within the said kitchen. All these features integrate seamlessly between the museum galleries and the historic fabric.

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

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MONEY · 37

20 years of GasanMamo Insurance MONEY speaks to Julian Mamo, managing director at GasanMamo Insurance, who has been working with the company since 1987, prior to the merger between Gasan Insurance Agency and Galdes & Mamo Ltd. GasanMamo Insurance was formed in 1999 and is the result of a merger between two leading insurance providers – Gasan Insurance Agency and Galdes & Mamo Ltd. This year marks 20 years of GasanMamo Insurance. Looking back, what is your take on the decision to merge?

As one might imagine, the environment was very different then to what it is today; it was still pre-EU and pre euro days. Malta’s insurance market was made up mainly of insurers with UK roots represented by agents in Malta. International insurance markets were in a state of flux at that time and companies were looking to consolidate and alter their strategic direction. This resulted in merger and acquisition activity at this level.

It was this activity by our then principals that triggered Gasan Insurance Agency and Galdes & Mamo Ltd to enter into discussions to merge. Both sides immediately recognised the benefits that could be derived once the businesses were brought together. This was a quantum leap for all shareholders who had

the foresight to see the trajectory for growth, increased depth and quality in our offering.

How have you seen GasanMamo evolving in the local insurance industry?

While staying faithful to the values that were shared by both companies, GasanMamo Insurance evolved to the point it is almost not recognisable. The company has grown exponentially in terms of revenue and resources, and the number of employees more than doubling. Activity has expanded beyond our shores where we now generate a substantial portion of our premium.

Given that another major milestone was the transition from the role of an agent to the insurance company it is today, what in your opinion makes GasanMamo Insurance Malta’s leading insurance company?

There is no doubt that the transition from representing another (foreign) insurer to becoming an insurer in our own right was the most significant development during the last 20 years. Our values and many of the processes remained constant. However capital requirements and responsibility shifted a few gears. The transition was smooth and I am extremely proud of our excellent track record. We have earned the respect of insurers, reinsurers and clients.

This would not have happened without the input of everyone concerned, from the board and management, to staff and intermediaries.

What do you think the insurance industry will look like 20 years from now?

The insurance industry, like many others, will evolve drastically. Compliance and regulatory pressures combined with the changes in the market demands referred

to above will drive companies to find a way to be large yet nimble. Technology will be fundamental in security and integrity of data, market knowledge as well as distribution and convenience for customers. It is set to be a fascinating onward journey, one that I relish for GasanMamo.

MONEY also spoke to Joseph A. Gasan, chairman of Gasan Group Limited, GasanZammit Motors Limited, GasanMamo Insurance Limited and several companies constituting the Gasan Group. He commented that the merger between Gasan Insurance Agency and Galdes & Mamo was a natural step for both companies to take things to the next level benefiting from improved economies of scale and synergies.

“I recall that discussions progressed very fast due to the likeminded and principled approach to business. I was certain that this step would prepare us to meet the challenges ahead and grasp the opportunities that would arise. Indeed, looking back over this time, this is certainly what happened. I am proud of what has been achieved and I am confident that there is much more to come. I would like to commend all the team who have contributed to this success at the various levels, but a special thanks is due to Albert Mamo, who led the company successfully through some very significant transitions,” Mr Gasan said.

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THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

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Benjamin Grech, managing director, Engel and Volkers, says the key to a healthier, happier and profitable environment is to follow a few steps that would make a load of difference.

Up, down or total collapse? Bubble or no bubble? These are questions we are constantly being asked as a brokerage firm and industry experts. What are your thoughts and are we able to objectively decipher the future of our real estate market?

Over the past 10 years we have seen the development of some fantastic projects, great architectural interventions, and many entry level newly-constructed apartments.

We have seen a trend move from a typical three-bedroom apartment to more twobedroom and one-bedroom apartments which investors have favourably purchased for considerably higher rental returns. There has also been a consistent rise in values yearon-year however a concrete percentage of price increases seems to be hard for anyone

to justify. We can confidently say that on average, over the past 10 years property prices have increased 100% (NSO-News 2018105)/Table 1). Consequently, one would ask, is there additional room for capital appreciation of real estate in Malta and Gozo?

We believe that the market is at a turning point and yes, certain properties will continue to rise.

On the other hand, a handful of properties will decrease in value, however, we do not envisage any type of collapse. The housing market is still vibrant with prices up, inventory down, even though several people are being cautious of a real estate “bubble”.

WE ARE CURRENTLY WITNESSING A BIG OVERHAUL IN THE ROAD NETWORK AND IF COUPLED WITH AN EFFICIENT AND RELIABLE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM, THE REAL ESTATE MARKET WILL REMAIN STRONG

There are most certainly a few pain points and red flags in the current market that must be addressed to protect the future of our island’s real estate, and we are strong believers in transparency and access to data. If we can have an overview of the true picture of the number, types and values of property across our islands at the right time (this is crucial), we would be able to make better-informed decisions. Any individual willing to restore an old building or construct a new project should be obliged to propose an environmental study and justify the typology of the building. Those involved in construction must allow for more green areas and have the relevant licences and laws enforced. Local Plans should cater for

building polices to provide more opportunity for vegetation as this relates to improved mental health and those involved in the sale transactions of properties should have the relevant training and licence also. Health and well-being is of utmost importance and should be treated as such, as well as energy efficiency and sustainability.

Apart from the above, the country’s infrastructure plays a giant role. We are currently witnessing a big overhaul in the road network and if coupled with an efficient and reliable public transport system, the real estate market will remain strong. This could be a road map to a healthier, happier and profitable environment.

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THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

PROMO

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THE QUAD:

Design innovation in the heart of Malta

The Quad Business Towers is a new commercial development located in the Central Business District in Mrieħel. Currently under construction, this quadruple set of towers, which shall stand at commanding heights of 13, 15, 16 and 19 storeys respectively, is scheduled for completion in 2021.

This article explains the design features of this exciting development and how De Micoli and Associates architects have managed to create functional office space while also delivering a modern, sleek complex that will improve architectural landscape of the Mrieħel area.

The core concept of designing the towers cityscape is to provide flow and movement.

The tower volumes and bridges are designed and sculpted in a streamlined fashion creating novel experiences of urban space with spectacular views from a variety of vantage points. Attention is given specifically to long distance views, with detailed exercises and research invested in creating a balanced composition of the towers.

The selection of four separate towers rather than a single larger tower provides ample commercial space while allowing natural light to permeate between the buildings. The four towers are juxtaposed to provide a framed view, with gentle curved façades to soften the height of the development. They step inwards to visually lead the eye to the top and form a viewpoint of bright spacious terraces at various levels, across different directions.

Varying tower heights, while simultaneously keeping the aspect of the facades slim and using vertical reliefs, creates an interesting view with shifts in geometry.

Wearing almost full coats of glass, the selection of the façade has been crucial to the functionality and impact of the towers.

The façade is designed to provide shade and

ventilation, with glass specially chosen for its high performance. Balconies have been introduced in areas up to tower level 14 giving shade, ventilation and external access on a substantial portion of the facades. Colour selection of the glass was a detailed exercise involving many months of sampling and rendering, to ensure a bright, sharp, modern aspect from every viewpoint.

At the lower levels, a series of walkways and bridges connect the four towers and bring them together as one. The bridges, architecturally designed to provide an illusion of space and movement, couple purposely with the curved geometry of the buildings and lead the eye into the two piazza levels of the development.

This open, meandering public space at the ground levels with interlinking stairs, gentle landscaping and ample green areas shall invite visitors into the core of the Quad development.

But it’s not just about aesthetics, the design of a complex like this needs to be functional, sustainable and ergonomic. Below ground, well-designed car parking makes access to the development simple and hassle free.

The hub of the development sits at the two ground levels, where an array of amenities and commercial activity sits around the public piazzas. This is also the main reception point into the towers above. More than 50% of the ground level, or over 6,000 square metres,

will be public and open to the sky. This area will feature sympathetic landscaping, including indigenous trees, creepers and shrubs which will be irrigated from recycled water stored in underground reservoirs.

The office areas above benefit from thoughtful layouts to take every advantage of the spacious design, as well as from the green building concepts used throughout the development. These concepts are forecasted to achieve platinum LEED® certification, the highest such available for sustainable development.

The future for the Central Business District in Mrieħel looks bright, as it is transforming into a business and commercial hub. The architectural landscape of the area is rapidly evolving to reflect this shift, with the Quad Business Towers leading the way.

Muza adv - Eng 280x215.indd 1

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THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

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MONEY · 43

FIFTY YEARS of REAL ESTATE EXCELLENCE Frank Salt, a visionary behind Malta’s real estate industry, speaks about what started as a one-man band back in 1970 to what it has become today: a real estate market leader.

Fifty years young and still going strong – no small feat indeed for a company operating within such a competitive industry. What all began half a century ago with just one man, eventually became not only a successful family business, but also grew into the leading independent real estate agency in Malta. Over the years, the team at Frank Salt Real Estate and the man behind it all, has not only witnessed many changes on the island and the ups and downs that any business goes through, but pulled through it together and, in the process, has become a tightly-knit successful family.

place to relocate to and work in. But you need accommodation and offices, which in turn leaves more money in people’s pockets. So yes, there’s a pleasant boom which I think will continue as long as the country is managed properly.

Fifty years is a long time to be in any business. What’s your secret to success?

The secret: a good team around me. When it got to a situation where I was getting a little bit tired, I was very fortunate to have my sons, who joined after University. They both agreed and in 2004 they accepted to run the agency.

Since then, I’ve stayed on as non-executive Chairman. I also do training courses for staff, and visit offices; I think it’s important that people see that the ‘big boss’ still cares for each one of them. We’ve been very careful and honest and appreciate that gaining a good reputation helps keep a business going.

The name Frank Salt is now synonymous with property in Malta. How and when did it all begin?

I came to Malta in the early ’60s and I was looking for a job. I was offered one by a real estate company called KB and ended up working there for two years. When they decided not to carry on, I formed my own company in 1970. We started off with two people and one office. After some time, we were the first agency to open more branches. The first branch we opened was in Paola and today we have 20 branches across the islands.

How differently did you do things in the past as opposed to now?

We were the first to have an office with a shop window, displaying photos of properties. But the biggest thing that changed our business was the mobile phone. Before this, our job was horrendous. This is why when mobile phones first came to Malta I was the third to own one on the island. It was so difficult to get in touch with the client before, especially if

one of us was running late or couldn’t make it to an appointment.

What is your take on the current property boom?

It is a boom created by the market. Maltese are still very keen on buying their own homes, so there’ll always be a good, solid Maltese market. When locals first started buying their own property, one of the reasons they bought something so big was to stay in for long. Today, Maltese families could buy as many as five properties in a lifetime. So you’ve got the local market which is moving, an expanding economy (hence the need for more high-rise, as we can’t keep putting people in the countryside) as it is causing its own problems. However, we are now living in a cosmopolitan society. Malta is a pretty good

What would you say makes your agency stand out?

A good set of values: integrity, honesty, friendliness, efficiency and trust. Although many things have changed over the years, our passion, integrity and commitment to serving our client’s needs remained consistent.

We are proud to have built a reputation based on strong values and an honest, solid work ethic, backed by the guidance of the Salt family, their directors and, of course, a dedicated team. With initiatives such as our ‘Let’s Go’ environmental campaign, we hope to continue serving not only the needs of prospective and current Maltese homeowners, but also maintain our responsibilities in safeguarding the heritage of our islands for future generations.

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THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

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This is what has prompted governments worldwide to embrace a new era of digital financial services and implement a system of regulatory frameworks; which safeguard consumers and businesses alike. Malta was one of the first countries globally to identify the need for such regulation, being the first EU Member State to introduce a complete

regulatory framework for this sector. With the boom in the iGaming industry totally overhauling Malta’s commercial industries and accounting for 2% of the island’s annual GDP, it comes as no surprise that payment technology companies like Credorax, with their ever-increasing expertise in payment services, are proving themselves essential to the industry.

Credorax is a licensed NextGen acquiring bank, specialising in cross-border processing for ecommerce omni-channel and POS payments. Establishing themselves in Malta is undoubtedly a smart move, allowing the company to tap into a highly skilled talent pool with a hunger to be at the forefront of this emerging industry; as well as benefiting from a banking licence that covers all Europe. There are over 100 different payment methods spanning over 120 currencies for Credorax merchants. Credorax merchants also benefit from being paid in the currency of their choice, as well as a range of additional products and services, including sophisticated tools for fraud protection, in-

depth business intelligence, fast onboarding, and advanced regulatory compliancy, providing a unique payment experience, unparalleled by their competition.

Authorised by Malta’s sole financial regulator, the Malta Financial Services Authority (MSFA), and with a permanent office in Malta, Credorax boasts of a team of over 220 employees across the globe, with centres of operation in the United States, Japan and China; allowing merchants and payment service providers expand their footprint to wherever they want.

By pioneering cutting-edge payment tech, Credorax offers a diverse portfolio of products and services to keep up with the growing demand of the booming FinTech industries. With products such as data services, merchant onboarding, currency management solutions for e-commerce and omni-channel merchants, payment facilitators and POS, Credorax has proven to be an essential service provider for clients looking for rapid business growth, globally.

ISSUE 55

PROMO

46 · MONEY

Your business deserves answers In a world dominated by more choice than ever, standing out from your competition is essential. Remember, the lines between local and global when competing for an audience are blurring – the advent of digital technologies has meant that you’re now competing with suppliers across the globe. And without a doubt, the best way to stand out from the crowd is to really understand who you’re talking to, and more importantly – to show them that you understand them.

Gone are the days of the quick sale – any marketer worth their salt will tell you that the paradigm has shifted to building relationships that last, and the only way that this can be done is to get an in-depth, thorough understanding of people. What are they

saying? What problems are they facing? What media are they consuming? How often?

These may seem like challenging questions to ask, but they form the basis of any sound market research. Getting to know your

customer may seem like a daunting task, but there are first-class services available locally – one such product is Onest Market Research; a bespoke marketing research company that delves into the nitty gritty to get you the answers you need. They specialise

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

in data collection across a broad range of disciplines – ranging from consumer goods, to service providers; business analytics and understanding consumer behaviour that drives a decision-making process.

Most importantly – they’re human-driven.

Onest is presented as an easy-to-grasp product backed by the most important resource out here: you guessed it, humans!

It’s not just about collecting field data – Onest can help you analyse and interpret the results of the data collected to then formulate strategies that achieve results. At any point,

PROMO

there’s a dedicated team of market research professionals ready at hand to guide and answer any questions you may have.

Onest Research presents a revolutionary product that can be bought off the shelf, quickly and easily online. There’s no need for long meetings, complex quotes or discussions – you simply tell them what your market research goals are, and they develop a strategy around you. Whether it’s a market research survey, a competitor analysis survey, research into employee satisfaction or employee pulse surveys – the Onest motto is “Ask your audience, get efficient results”. Of

MONE Y · 47

course, the support is always there for faceto-face discussion as necessary, which gives the buyer the best of both worlds.

The process begins with data, understanding which questions are essential to answer for your specific business needs. Next comes insight – asking the right questions to the right people, via surveys programmatically designed to target the right audience; ensuring statistically valid answers. The final stage in the process is action – through a series of in-depth data mining and analysis of survey results; giving detailed insights

THERE’S NO NEED FOR LONG MEETINGS, COMPLEX QUOTES OR DISCUSSIONS – YOU SIMPLY TELL THEM WHAT YOUR MARKET RESEARCH GOALS ARE, AND THEY DEVELOP A STRATEGY AROUND YOU

into the problems at hand – and identifying solutions where necessary.

Knowing which questions to ask isn’t easy.

Finding the right way to ask them, to the right people is even harder, yet a fundamentally crucial exercise to undertake to ensure you’re developing a product or service tailored to your customer’s needs – ensuring not just customer satisfaction, but more importantly, client retention. We live in a world dominated by data, driven by numbers, and fuelled by customer insight. The media landscape has evolved to allow two-way communication with your customers, which means that you simply cannot afford to blind yourself to what your customers are saying, or what their needs are.

To learn more about Onest, the services they offer and to get a detailed understanding of this revolutionary research process, or simply to get a quote to match your specific market research requirements, visit www.onestresearch.com.

Insert the coupon code MONEYTAG when asking for your quote and you will instantly receive a 5% discount on your first Onest Research package.

48 · MONEY

INTERIORS

ISSUE 55

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

INTERIORS

MONEY · 49

Elise is a creative writer by trade and a literature graduate by degree. She works at Switch Digital and Brand as a copywriter and trend-watcher, and likes keeping herself up to date with everything digital, internet and informational.

office perks that pay off?

For office design, today, the standard is completely unrecognisable from the set-piece of the 1950s that dominated every workplace up until the 1970s. Office design through history has fluctuated from sprawling, dimlylit caverns to Velcro-texture cubicles, elusive corner offices for executives and standardised one-size-fits-all technology for everyone, to gamified productivity powerhouses with a laundry-list of available perks. On-site coffee shops, dizzying views, spa rooms, and pools have turned the modern office into a ‘whendoes-the-work-get-done’ playground.

On-site perks notwithstanding, the modern office is once again fluctuating, with a greater emphasis on creating sustainable, eco-friendly workspaces created to foster a sense of community and belonging — an understanding that historically would not have been considered as a viable approach to designing a work space. The idea of work functioning as a dual-edged sword of both doing productive work and a social ground would have been anathema to the highstakes, high-speed work goals set by bosses whose primary inspiration was their first job: usually, the floor of a manufacturing plant or factory.

Manufacturing plants have long, thin tables bracketed on either side by workers.

The leader of the Efficiency Movement, Frederick Taylor, borrowed the aesthetics

Elise Dalli compares the age of factory-machine productivity with the age of championing the human worker, leading to a change in office culture.

of a constantly-in-production factory and applied it to offices, creating an open office environment riddled with noise and discomfort while allowing the upper-level management a bastion of relative peace in self-contained offices. After 50 years of the Taylorist design serving as the basis for office spaces, the changing socio-political attitudes of Europe brought the ‘cluster’ office into popularity. Desks were grouped together to foster communication and connection, although the materials and the basic layout of the office buildings did not change, often leaving the workers in dank, dark spaces and with sub-par materials.

Bürolandschaft allowed for the inclusion of potted plants and encouraged talking between office mates in the earliest form of the open-office space recorded; however, it was only in use for 20 years before office designers tried to drag back some privacy to common spaces and brought about the rise of cubicle offices; it was meant to give office workers some much-needed privacy from their colleagues, but instead it made the workspace impersonal and streamlined, a re-skinning of the 1900s office design that people roundly agreed didn’t work anymore.

Why does office space affect employee productivity?

On average, people spend most of their

working lives in their office, and eight hours a day in any space can take a toll on a person’s well-being. Furthermore, your office needs to be better than home, in the sense that the workplace’s ultimate competition is a home office designed to fulfil that employee’s specific working style.

Remote work is becoming a greater threat to office-based workplaces. As people’s lives change, they’re more likely to lean harder on remote work, which means that your workspace’s faults will be magnified if the choice between working as they want and working within limitations is given to them. →

INTERIORS

50 · MONEY

Office space and company culture Workspaces also have a third duty that they need to fulfil, that of echoing the brand’s culture, which many workspaces struggle to balance. Brand values and company cultures are popular buzzwords in 2019, although paring them back to meaning helps to understand why: nowadays, people are rightfully critical of brand values that don’t match with the brand, or company cultures that make the news for their working conditions. The age of factory-machine productivity has ended, and the age of championing the human worker is slowly coming into its own: it’s why consumers are boycotting Amazon and why Theranos’ failure was watched from soaring point to crashand-burn, and why the tell-all blog post has become the weapon of choice for employees hemmed in by strict HR regulations and dire working conditions.

The case of Rockstar alone should serve as an important example of why brand values, office space, and company culture are critical to employee welfare: after publishing their hit game, Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar employees who worked on the epic were laid off. Very few got severance packages; even fewer had a job lined up to go within months.

The lack of transparency in the industry, and about Rockstar itself, led employees to publish blogs about their working conditions: 80-hour work weeks, unpaid overtime, rampant disregard for employee health, burnout, criticism, and others.

The offices are beautiful. It isn’t enough.

Office spaces need to be more than beautiful, and the fundamental third tenet has largely gone unfulfilled in a great number of agencies. Having perks that make your employee’s life easier is important, and valuable, however, if those employees are chronically overworked and stressed, the perks themselves will not make much of a difference.

Having a company culture that values the interaction and integration of employees does. Echoing that company culture in the office’s design is crucial — from collaborative, open-air spaces to remote working opportunities, to catered lunches,

ISSUE 55

and everything else in between. It reminds employees the company they’re working for cares about them. It reminds them that they’re valued. It reminds them why they come to work, and what they do, and why it matters.

This is especially necessary for creative industries, which had a higher risk of burnout along with the longer hours. Giving them an office that echoes the brand values inspires a feeling of companionship; that feeling of companionship encourages people to collaborate and talk; that collaboration brings about better ideas. On paper, it’s easy.

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A well-lit and ventilated office increases satisfaction by 24%, which in turn bumps productivity up by 16%; Only 55% of employees think their workplace is conducive to creativity and productivity; Productivity drops by 66% in a noisy room; The brain needs natural light to function; 87% of workers would like their workplace to offer more healthy benefits such as ergonomic seating and healthy lunch rooms; 82% of professionals believe companies need to have innovative workplaces to engage and encourage innovation in their employees.

Design that works When interviewed by Metropolis magazine, senior associate Brian Brindisi, from Gensler, sums up the relationship between design and brand value as “an immersive experience for every person who enters their workplace.”

Multiple conglomerates are now realising the value of making their offices a functional expression of their brand values.

Gensler is a global architecture and design firm with over 16 specialised areas of practice in over 40 locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Asia, and Latin America.

As a design firm, good design is baked into their philosophy, but designing an office for yourself and designing an office for a client are two completely different things.

Furthermore, Gensler prides itself on

individualistic design, and has built numerous offices for clients, including the new McDonald’s headquarters in Chicago.

Gensler La Crosse’s current offices were, initially, a design-led experiment; the end of their lease was coming up, and they chose to relocate rather than renew their lease, and asked the design team of another branch to help them design their new office space.

Gensler Chicago’s design team conducted interviews and personality tests to find out what the Gensler La Crosse team liked, what they found most inspiring, and more importantly, what they liked.

Gensler Chicago built the La Crosse offices around three tenets: sociability, health, and nature. Most of the Gensler La Crosse workers are massive outdoor enthusiasts, with hobbies like rock-climbing and fishing, and spent a lot of their time on the water. Gensler Chicago incorporated the topographical flow of the river in the office design, and included sit-stand desks as an option for all their workers. Furthermore, they created an employee canteen to allow employees a place to relax.

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

INTERIORS

MONE Y · 51

with the public. In refreshing their office, SPACE10 also reduced the number of panels in their walls, allowing for more light and space for their workers.

SPACE10 also included a test kitchen, where members of the public will sample SPACE10’s culinary research. As a part of an incentive to increase worker-public interaction, there is also an event space that is open to visitors.

Another office redesigned to offer their employees greater collaborative opportunities, Steelcase’s Munich-based Learning + Innovation centre was renovated to be inspiring, from the brightly-lit rooms and the sink-into-it sofas to the standing desks and magnetic chalkboards. Steelcase offers glass cubicles for those who want a more private working experience, however, the underpinning tenet for Steelcase is: collaboration, casual, elegant.

The Gensler La Crosse employees loved their new spaces, and their blog reported higher levels of productivity, and a better mood all around due to the new collaborative areas and the opportunities to just engage and interact available. Joan Meyers, the managing director of Gensler La Crosse, put it this way: “There’s a sense of pride that you can feel in all of us—there’s no ‘I’ here, only ‘we’.”

ON-SITE COFFEE SHOPS, DIZZYING VIEWS, SPA ROOMS, AND POOLS HAVE TURNED THE MODERN OFFICE INTO A ‘WHEN-DOES-THEWORK-GET-DONE’ PLAYGROUND

Similarly, IKEA’s SPACE10, a self-contained research facility in a renovated former fish grocery, is built for innovation. SPACE10 is the branch of IKEA that researches and pioneers IKEA’s strategy to future-proof their design and respond to societal changes.

A tenet of SPACE10 is innovation: they habitually invite creatives to collaborate with them, and host design events in their offices.

Undeniably IKEA, their office is modular and white, clean and do-it-yourself with framed walls packed end to end with inspirational photographs. The two floors were designed to offer both private and social areas, with the ground floor acting as an informal meeting floor for both colleagues and liaising

Their office redesign came on the heels of testing out a new way of working. By changing the workload into pods, Steelcase streamlined their operation process by using group projects rather than single workers collaborating over email. It encourages people to work together, to work more efficiently, and to get to know people from other departments, which their open-office echoes in every design aspect.

Do it or don’t?

An office shouldn’t be just ‘the place where you go to work’. What most companies struggle with is implementing their brand values in a way that encourages their employees to support them and understand them, to embody them and make them an expression of the brand. Designing the office to echo brand values can increase productivity and employee satisfaction — which will then increase your bottom line.

Companies that go for a workspace design that echoes their brand values are renowned for their beautiful spaces and for happy employees; whether the design will work for you depends on what your brand values are.

Overall, designing your workspace to echo your company and your brand values has a positive effect on employees, and should not be taken lightly. Will it save a negative company culture? No. But it’s a start.

52 ¡ MONEY

COUNTRY REPORT

ISSUE 55

Without Rhine or reason The European Parliament elections shook up the status quo in several countries, some pleasantly and some not. Germany had a few surprises of its own.

Green has never been Merkel’s favourite colour, but there is nothing like an electoral shock to make the German Chancellor scramble to reassure her voters. Other countries may have struggled with populist and far-right demands, but the younger voters in Germany wanted something quite different: a planet to inherit.

According to State broadcaster ARD, climate change has become a priority for 46 per cent of voters - up 26 percentage points since the 2014 European elections. Much of the blame/inspiration for this crisis started with

a Swedish teenager, Greta Thunberg, who started a movement in August 2018, called #FridaysForFuture. Then 15, she sat outside the Swedish parliament for three weeks of schooldays, demanding more action on climate crisis.

Social media made the individual protest into a worldwide phenomenon, and German youths were motivated by the ongoing action being taken, angered by what they see as an unambitious programme to phase out polluting coal. Merkel has already promised to do so by 2038, but that is not soon enough

for millennials. And of course, there is another cloud hanging over German credentials: emissions. Not only was Volkswagen heavily fined for faking its achievements, but the take up of zero-emission cars remains slow, even though several manufacturers have promised to roll them out on a much larger scale in the coming years.

The CDU/CSU and SPD parties got a drubbing at the European Parliament elections, and the beneficiaries of this were the Greens, which unexpectedly came second in the European elections, with 20.5 per cent of the vote. This

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

Of course, she was wise after the event and convened her ‘climate cabinet’ after the elections, promising that a new climate strategy will be issued by September. As it stands, Germany aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2020, by 55 per cent by 2030 and up to 95 per cent in 2050, compared to 1990 levels. Renewables will account for 60 per cent of the country’s energy by 2050.

So far, so green, but Germany is set to miss its 2020 target of cutting CO2 emissions by 40 per cent from 1990 levels, currently only on course for a 32 per cent reduction. And to make matters worse, the government watered down its commitment to get on track, saying that it would do what it could to close the gap “as much as possible” and reach the target “as soon as possible”.

Green activists were not appeased: one pressure group believes that to make any impact, seven coal plants would need to be shut down by 2022. However, any action would have a dramatic impact on the energy sector, housing, transport, industry, agriculture and forestry, and waste management, all of which will be covered by the policy to be issued in September.

Of course, the issue is not only environmental but also impacts on cost. According to the European Commission, Germany already

MONEY · 53

1400 GHG emissions in million tonnes CO2equiv.

was a particularly bitter pill for Merkel, who was 14 years ago nicknamed the "climate chancellor" for pushing renewables while committing to phase out nuclear power by 2022 and now coal by 2038.

COUNTRY REPORT

1200 1000 2018 status: 866 Mt | equiv. to 1954/1955

800

2020 target: -40% (over 1990) or ~751Mt | equiv. 1951

600 2030 target: -55% (over 1990) or ~563Mt | equiv. 1934/1948

400 200 2050 target: up to -95% (over 1990) or ~63Mt | equiv. 1855

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Figure: Germany's greenhouse gas emissions 1850-2018 and reduction targets Data: GÜtschow, Johannes, Jeffery, Louise; Gieseke, Robert (2019): The PRIMAP-hist national historical emissions time series (1850-2016). V. 2.0. GFZ Data Services. http://doi.org/10.5880/PIK.2019.001; 2017-2018: UBA, 2019; Emission targets 2020, 2030, 2050: Govt. Climate Action Plan 2050 (2016).

has the second highest electricity costs in 2018, not far behind Denmark. The new policy will also consider "CO2 pricing" to factor in the economic cost of emissions, which can take the form of a carbon tax or trading of emissions certificates.

Where does all this fit into the rest of the economic performance indicators?

Inflation via the price index stood at 1.4 per cent year-on-year in May, some 0.6 percentage points lower than in April, whose price increases were blamed on a late Easter.

The European Central Bank considers 2.0 per cent to be the healthy target for inflation, and using its indicator — the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices — inflation was even lower at 1.3 per cent.

There are other warning signs but they must be seen in context. For example, unemployment rose in May to 5.0 per cent, for the first time since 2013 when it had gone up to 6.9 per cent. But in March and April, the jobless rate was 4.9 per cent — the lowest since reunification in 1990. Indeed, the rate compares very favourably with other Eurozone countries.

The German economy returned to growth in the first quarter, but the economic growth forecast for 2019 is just 0.5 per cent. The

growth rates are still in positive territory but the authorities are not taking any chance and insisted recently that German banks boost their capital buffers to prevent a credit crunch in case of recession. They want at all cost to prevent banks becoming more risk-averse in scenarios such as prolonged low interest rates or overvalued collateral. During this tepid growth, the government now must ease the unrest in coal-mining regions, pledging to spend €40 billion by 2038 on roads, rail lines and internet cables to make the regions more attractive for investment.

And this all in an economic climate where tax revenues are being forecast to rise more slowly than expected in coming years: €124 billion less in the next four years than had been estimated half a year ago. This time the finger of blame is pointed at slowing global economic growth, and America’s trade wars with the European Union and China.

Until now, Merkel's government has pledged to stick to current levels of debt, to avoid future trouble in the ageing nation, but with pressure on revenue and pressure on infrastructure spending, the last thing the Chancellor needs is to make it all greener by stopping subsidies to the car and airline sectors, as the Greens are urging. Will the September policy save her skin? That remains to be seen.

54 · MONEY

DESIGN

ISSUE 55

Leaving a mark MONEY interviews Craig Macdonald, co-founder and illustrator at Te fit-Tazza and Souvenirs That Don’t Suck.

After several product launches and new collections, you seem to still register improvements year after year. Can you tell us what process you follow?

I guess since our first release we have kept a somewhat consistent process from the moment an idea is discussed to the time it is released and even after that.

An important part of our process is to always ask ourselves why we are working on an idea and what fundamental necessity it is we are fulfilling. Having a strong base narrative is crucial. But it also boils down to good planning, making sure we have a detailed plan in hand for each and every project we plan to implement. It allows us to scale the scope of a project to our needs, ensuring a very lean and effective shift from pure creative to actual collection rollout and implementation across all our channels.

The shift we have witnessed from an online store selling only prints, to having a retail space, means that we are also factoring in our retail experience, so what we produce now is also influenced by the vibe we would like our retail space to have.

One of your brand promises at Te fit-Tazza is to have accessible prices to have your art touch as many people as you can. Can you tell us more?

One of the main aims of Te fit-Tazza was to celebrate Malta and the Maltese identity.

We strongly feel that this celebration should be accessible to everyone. Our mission is to instill a sense of pride and deeper understanding about our identity, so the promise stems from this reasoning.

I STARTED OFF DOING GRAFFITI IN MY TEENS AND SKATEBOARDING YEARS AND STUMBLED UPON A WEBSITE (MALTAGRAF) THAT SHOWCASED ALL THE DIFFERENT STREET ART AROUND MALTA; I GUESS THAT WAS KIND OF WHERE MY LOVE FOR THE USE OF COLOUR, FORMS AND TYPE STARTED OFF

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

DESIGN

MONEY · 55

Since our launch, we strived for a balance between open-run and limited-run editions, as well as large and small prints, to appeal to a wider audience ranging from art collectors to gift-givers.

Who were your greatest inspirations and how have you adopted their ideas into your own?

I started off doing graffiti in my teens and skateboarding years and stumbled upon a website (maltagraf) that showcased all the different street art around Malta; I guess that was kind of where my love for the use of colour, forms and type started off. I was only about 14 or 15 at the time, so being around skateboard graphics, graffiti and later discovering electronic music, opened me up to the world of obscure and sometimes very minimalist abstract artworks.

After working as a designer in advertising for about seven years, I became very accustomed to the creation of brands, the use of an

aesthetic code to develop a visual language that is congruent and as a result was able to apply the skills I had learned as a teen and link them to the approach and discipline that advertising and branding taught me.

When kicking off a project, a considerable amount of time is spent on developing a visual language that is both adaptable to different subjects and quite unique in its outcome.

Recently you acquired another brand: Souvenirs That Don’t Suck. How do you manage to keep both brands with their own promise, products and visual identity?

We knew that keeping Te fit-Tazza and Souvenirs That Don’t Suck as two separate brands that share a retail space (our store in Manwel Dimech Street, Sliema) was not something to be taken lightly, mainly as we really needed to sit down and understand how the two differ. We spent months understanding exactly what it is that each

brand stands for, beyond our brand promise, and really trying to dig deeper to the core character of each brand. In a nutshell, Te fitTazza is a colloquial brand, really celebrating the notion of being Maltese, whereas Souvenirs That Don’t Suck shifts more towards the Maltese lifestyle, both in aspect of the design of the products and that of the type of products on offer.

One of the biggest problems for designers is protecting their copyright. What are your views?

It all boils down to human decency, understanding what is being done around you and respecting it is, in essence, acting with integrity. Working hard and constantly challenging yourself to go further will allow you to develop your own style and to leave your mark. Having a lawyer who can give you sound advice on how to protect yourself is crucial as sadly there are some lines that do get crossed, and when that happens, protection in this regard is important.

ISSUE 55

FA S H I O N

56 · MONEY

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Summer MONEY’s sizzling choices for this summer.

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13 1 Camp-collar floral-print tencel and linen-blend shirt PAUL SMITH / €255 2 Printed cotton-blend satin shorts PAUL SMITH / €325 3 Boudreau LA D-frame acetate sunglasses OLIVER PEOPLES / €295 4 Slim-fit mélange cotton-piqué polo shirt ORLEBAR BROWN / €135 5 Reversible printed shell bucket hat GUCCI / €250

6 Prepster cotton oxford shorts POLO RALPH LAUREN / €85 7 Light blue linen suit jacket TOD'S / €860 8 3cm leather-trimmed woven cotton belt BERLUTI / €350 9 Suede espadrilles MULO / €160 10 Short-length camouflage-print shell swim shorts VALENTINO / €395

THE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION EDITION

FA S H I O N

MONEY · 57

Magic

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11 Costa Azzurra Acqua eau de parfum lemon, cypress oil & amber, 50ml TOM FORD BEAUTY / €92 12 Slim-fit logo-embroidered mélange pima cotton-jersey t-shirt POLO RALPH LAUREN / €70 13 Brixton webbing-trimmed horsebit collapsible-heel leather loafers GUCCI / €595

All items available from mrporter.com

Navitimer 8 B01 Chronograph 43mm stainless steel and leather watch BREITLING Available from Edwards Lowell Co. Ltd — T: 2138 4503

NEWS

58 · MONEY

ISSUE 55

Simply buying a dream property Buying a property ushers with it a period of excitement but also uncertainty, worry and stress. Here are some tips for a smoother home buying process.

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At Bank of Valletta, our home loan specialists can guide you further to make the home buying process as painless as possible. Set up an appointment by calling on 2131 2020 or visit your nearest BOV Branch. For additional convenience, several branches are open on Thursday from 3.30 pm till 6 pm.

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Talk to your bank’s home loan expert early so you set your budget and inform yourself about the various home loan products on the market; Budget properly, apart from the down payment, there are additional costs such as notary fees, architect fees, stamp duty and processing fees; Negotiate the final price, set up an inspection by a trusted architect, check that the necessary Planning Authority permits are in order and sign the promise of sale at your notary; Complete the loan application with your bank and once it is approved, collect your sanction letter, seeking legal advice if need be, before signing; Provide a copy of the sanction letter to your notary and supply the bank with any required security items such as life assurance policy; building’s insurance policy, and pledging of assets held; If required, submit the necessary development applications with the Planning Authority; Check with your notary whether searches have been completed or if there are any issues; Prior to expiry of the promise of sale, ensure that the necessary arrangements with the bank and the seller have been made and date for the deed of sale is set;

Ensure that the deed of sale has been registered by your notary with the Public Registry within 15 working days from contract date.

All loans are subject to normal bank lending criteria and final approval from the Bank. The term of the loan must not go beyond retirement age. Security may be requested including mortgage or other comparable security. Further terms and conditions are available from www.bov.com. Issued by Bank

of Valletta p.l.c., 58, Triq San Żakkarija, Il-Belt Valletta VLT 1130. Bank of Valletta p.l.c. is a public limited company regulated by the MFSA and is licensed to carry out the business of banking in terms of the Banking Act (Cap. 371 of the Laws of Malta).

A complete and modern ERP solution for a multi-brand distribution business In today’s ever-changing distribution sector, companies face many of the same challenges around marketing a portfolio of brands in a highly competitive marketplace, managing the supply chain, and maintaining tight credit control. Forward thinking companies are turning to state of the art fully integrated Cloud ERP software which is specifically designed for distributors.

A modern ERP system for distributors provides tools to help manage sales ordering, pricing, shipping, sourcing, and billing – enabling you to streamline your business processes so that all your information is in one secure location. With accurate, real-time information available, situations requiring attention can be identified early and addressed quickly.

Our solution covers all aspects of mobile sales force automation, merchandising, logistics, purchasing, warehouse management, and accounting. It delivers seamless integration between your field sales, distribution logistics, inventory management, invoicing, and payment functions – providing you with a streamlined direct store delivery process and increased truck sales by using the latest technology. Acumatica Cloud ERP can help you reduce errors, payment disputes, and the administrative costs associated with distribution, merchandising, delivery, receiving, and payment procedures.

For more information on how Computime Software can empower your distribution business, visit www.computimesoftware.com/acumatica-erp or email info@computimesoftware.com.

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+356 7975 9018• margaret.muscat@engelvoelkers.com

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