MONEY MARCH 2013 ISSUE 17

The Eco, Science and IT issue Issue 11 February/March Issue 17 March 2013 2012

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Welcome The only time when we really appreciate technology is when the electricity goes off and everything grinds to a halt. We’re left fumbling in the dark – the food in the fridge is getting warmer, we can’t have a hot shower, and the mobile phone’s battery life is running out. And we can’t alienate ourselves by watching the telly because, well, there’s nothing on it – literally.

In this issue of Money, we highlight the importance of science, IT and eco initiatives.

In a well-researched study, Alan Pulis argues how economic growth, prosperity and the sustainability of social welfare can only be guaranteed by a stable, secure and flexible energy market. In an interview with Vanessa Macdonald, Professor Edward Mallia expresses his frustration at Malta’s stalled energy plans.

The responsibility of our choices does not only lie with environmental issues but it also extends to shopping.

Dr Edward Duca interviews Professor Liam Delaney on how behavioural intervention can help consumers make wiser choices.

The Malta Council of Science and Technology is doing valuable work in promoting science. MCST chairman Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando unveils other exciting plans to popularise science.

On the architecture and design front, Konrad Buhagiar says that good architecture passes on our genes to the next generations, while designer Violet Kulewska reuses and upcycles interiors to build an environmentally-responsible home.

We also travel to Ghana, which has become a rare African success story. The question is, will it be able to sustain its growth?

Read on and enjoy.

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March 2013 Contents 10 Aiming for the stars MCST chairman Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando tells Veronica Stivala about the Malta Council for Science and Technology’s exciting projects.

13 A man with energy Professor Edward Mallia helped the environmental agenda take root in Malta.

Nowadays, he is still frustrated about stalled energy plans, he tells Vanessa Macdonald.

16 The meaning of architecture Architecture should haunt us with our own ghosts, says Konrad Buhagiar.

19 Websites: an obituary The website is human history’s greatest and most all-encompassing creative medium. Yet in most markets, it’s dying a slow, premature death, thanks to that insidious interloper known as the app. Sean Patrick Sullivan explains how this happened, why it’s bad for everyone’s business, and what Maltese creatives and marketers can do about it.

22 What power to the people?

Malta’s energy sector is at a crossroads, says Alan Pulis.

26 IT works Money showcases the best of local ICT companies.

32 The big apple takes a bite Apple’s share price has made whopping gains, but its stock value has plummeted. What is shaking the tree, ask Chris Grech and Calvin Bartolo.

36 All that glitters is the Gold Coast Ghana has become a rare African success story.

But will it sustain its growth, asks Money.

40 Living in a green house By re-using and up-cycling your interiors, you can live in a responsible home, says Violet Kulewska.

48 Get wired Money is on tech behaviour and goes to gadget paradise.

52 The Spanish conquest Is it possible to fly the approximation of business class with a low-cost airline?

Mona Farrugia travels to Madrid to find out.

54 The Bluesman’s blog The Bluesman watches President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.

Money is published by BE Communications Ltd, 37, Amery Street, Sliema, SLM 1702 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited without written permission. Opinions expressed in Money are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. All reasonable care is taken to ensure truth and accuracy, but the editor and publishers cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions in articles, advertising, photographs or illustrations. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcome but cannot be returned without a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The editor is not responsible for material submitted for consideration.

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Science

Aiming for the stars A sparkling planetarium, a storm simulator and interactive galleries are just a few of the initiatives that the Malta Council for Science and Technology is investing in to popularise science. MCST chairman Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando tells Veronica Stivala about the centre’s exciting projects. Photos by Marc Casolani.

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nteractive galleries, a starry planetarium, exploding experiments in laboratories, sprawling workshop spaces and luscious landscaped gardens – the very thought of such an exciting porthole into the world of science would make anyone want to be a scientist.

These are the ingredients of what is soon to become a veritable hub of scientific fun: the National Interactive Science Centre, which is the biggest project to date embarked upon by the Malta Council for Science and Technology.

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The most important aspect of this huge project is that it will offer young people an interactive approach to science. Speaking proudly about this project, which is planned for completion by the first quarter of 2015, MCST chairman Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando underlines how essential it is that such a centre will not be a static experience.

“Looking at the way other science centres work, most visitors ignore the static exhibits and really engage themselves when it comes to interactivity. Such a centre will explain science in a fun way,” he says.

MCST is giving the project so much importance that it has even set up a Science Popularisation team. In the past, they have organised science festivals as well as taken part in other festivals such as the most recent, Science in the City last September which saw Profs Ċelli (Christopher Bugeja, Executive Science and Technology Officer at MCST) conducting weird and wonderful experiments, such as extracting DNA from bananas and conducting an orchestra of drinking straws and plastic cups.

What is equally exciting about the interactive centre are the buildings themselves: historic buildings which have fallen into disarray since WWII will be restored and converted into a relatively futuristic set-up. It already is quite a refreshing experience to break away from the busy main roads in Birgu and escape to the quaint, picturesque seaside village of Kalkara where Villa Bighi – the MCST headquarters – is perched. One can only imagine the added thrill for visitors to be met with a taste of the future following a drive by the sea.

Making science appealing is top on MCST’s list of priorities, explains Dr Pullicino Orlando, both for children’s sake and for the economy.

“We need to encourage more people to take up science subjects,” he says.

“We have seen people shying

through the labyrinth of forms.

One recent success for MCST was getting funds for ST Microelectronics, a French-Italian multinational electronics and semiconductor manufacturer which has a branch in Malta.

agricultural land, losing energy through overheating and generally being rather unsightly. Sea-based panels, on the other hand, are ideal for small islands such as ours.

As for maintaining Maltese stone, Dr Pullicino Orlando points out that even though everyone is aware that Malta

“Researchers put a lot of work and time into their research and are very wary when it comes to patenting their ideas because these can easily be plagiarised. Also, the patenting process is very laborious and can be quite expensive. More needs to be done to help researchers protect their work.”

We need to encourage more people to take up science subjects. away from sciences because they are seen to be the more difficult subjects. We actually get parents discouraging their children from taking up subjects. We hope NISC will popularise science and science subjects.”

Until NISC is complete, curious students can get a taste of experimenting with science at MCST, such as experiencing what it would feel like to be caught in the eye of a storm and interactively learning about static electricity.

MCST does its utmost to engage itself as much as possible with students and bases a lot of its work on the local curriculum for interactive projects. MCST is also heavily involved with supporting and promoting science at research level as well among the local industry. One important way of doing this is by helping people to apply for muchneeded funding – a laborious process which the MCST is well aware of and has set up an organisation specifically to help applicants wade

“We feel very strongly that if the local industry engages in research, there is a very good chance of us convincing established companies such as ST to stay in Malta,” says Dr Pullicino Orlando.

Speaking of research, MCST invests a lot of its resources in research and innovation and is encouraging research which has a practical use.

The Council has set up a Research and Innovation Fund – this fund is provided by central government and has risen from €350,000 to €1.6 million a year since Dr Pullicino Orlando was appointed chairman.

The current focus is on two specific areas of research, which are particularly pertinent to Malta: floating solar panels and restoration of Maltese stone.

With the ongoing spotlight on alternative energy and a big emphasis on solar energy, floating panels would solve many problems we face with normal solar panels such as taking up valuable

is already spending millions on restoring our bastions, what we’re doing might end up having to be done again in 20 years’ time if we don’t treat our stone properly.

Researching how best to restore limestone could save millions in the long term.

It is evident that MCST comprises a hardworking team who, literally, aim for the stars. The centre is involved with the European Space Agency and they recently signed a collaboration agreement as well as succeeded in getting a number of scholarships from the agency.

“The space industry has a significant impact on the local economy. For example, ST produces a number of components for the industry.

MCST has its own unit which is focusing on the space industry and its applications in the Maltese scenario,” says Dr Pullicino Orlando.

One weakness that still hounds local scientists is the patenting task, notes the chairman.

A project Dr Pullicino Orlando is particularly proud of is establishing primary science education as a discipline in its own right through developing a number of science activities designed specifically for inquiry-based learning.

Through this project, called PRI-SCI-NET, primary science teachers from different countries will attend special training programmes. The material produced will be translated into 15 European languages for use by primary science teachers across Europe.

What does MCST do to reach out to potential recipients of funding and of their projects?

“We organise a number of conferences regularly and also give presentations to explain what’s available,” explains Dr Pullicino Orlando. This, he says, is thanks to his top-notch team of both board members and staff comprising a unique mix of academics and people involved in industry whose support he truly appreciates.

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Interview

Vanessa Macdonald is a freelance journalist in her spare time, covering a wide range of lifestyle and economic issues.

A man with energy Professor Edward Mallia helped the environmental agenda take root in Malta. Nowadays, he is still frustrated about stalled energy plans, he tells Vanessa Macdonald.

Photos by Marc Casolani.

W

hen Professor Edward Mallia says something about energy, most people sit up and take notice. After all, this is a topic that he embraced decades ago, and while his bluntness has not endeared him to decision-makers, other people find it refreshing.

Prof. Mallia started writing in the newspapers in the 1970s, when he was still living in the UK, working at the University of Oxford. What he said about the aquaculture centre at San Luċjan, for example, was controversial enough to get a Labour MP clamouring for him to be hauled before Parliament – unsuccessfully. He also managed to raise the hackles of former Prime Minister Dom Mintoff when he wrote a pamphlet called The Floating Voters Guide before the 1981 election.

By the time he returned to Malta in 1983, he had already made a name for himself as a regular and controversial opinion writer. As there is not much call for astrophysicists in Malta, he took up a position as deputy head at the senior school at Sacred Heart Convent, eventually becoming the head. He then moved to the University to lecture in physics.

It was around this time that he got involved with the environment. Saviour Balzan roped him into Żghażagh ghallAmbjent, which eventually became Moviment ghall-Ambjent and then Friends of the Earth. Campaigns were organised against various projects – but in those days, the green agenda was not

as powerful as it has become now. He tries to list their successful campaigns and only comes up with one significant one: the cement factory in Burmarrad.

Nevertheless, he continued to use the media to express his opinion on projects: a letter in the London Times against Ta’ Ċenċ drove the minister responsible for the Planning Authority to lambast him for tarnishing Malta’s name overseas.

Within a few years, he had become engrossed with photovoltaic panels, well before they had become fashionable. His house was the first one to generate enough electricity to be able to sell it back to the grid – and that was in 2003, well before the government introduced purchase incentives. He also dabbled with electric cars – he drives an Indian-made one at the moment.

His expertise was soon sought after and he was a consultant for a number of public utilities and private companies.

The environmental agenda was slowly but surely taking root. Between 1988 and 1992, studies were carried out on numerous topics, including traffic.

Moviment ghall-Ambjent did all it could to raise awareness and in the 1990s hired a small plane to take aerial shots of Gozo. The shots – showing illegal development, dumping, marine pollution and clandestine quarries – caused an uproar. But it was painfully slow and very frustrating.

Quick forward to now and Dr Mallia

remains one of the most prolific and outspoken writers about the environment. He is less than impressed by some of the ideas that were put forward by the politicians in the electoral campaigns and is disappointed that so many initiatives launched years ago have yet to see the light of day – particularly those related to renewable energy.

He points out that the Labour Party’s proposals made no mention of wind energy. But he is quick to note that the government’s plans are also stalled. In 2009, three sites were identified for wind farms: Sikka l-Bajda, Bahrija and Hal Far. Only the first of these options was pursued as being viable but it got stuck because the Yelkouan Shearwater breeds nearby and nesting might be disturbed.

He is incensed that the other two options were not pursued.

“I have been saying for donkey’s years that Hal Far would be suitable. I am not in the least bit impressed by arguments that the site is on the flight path. If so, why was it suggested in the first place?

For heaven’s sake, planes manage to get to the runway in spite of the Freeport’s cranes,” he argues.

“And if the Sikka is not suitable, there are other offshore sites where the water is shallow enough. I and a number of other people had published papers showing that there is a 500m to 1km stretch between Marsalforn and San Blas where there are no birds breeding. But the minister does not want to consider it,” he continues.

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Interview

He may be critical of the PL’s energy proposals but it is nothing to do with partisan politics – he is just as critical of the government, calling the Energy Policy “nothing short of a complete disaster” with incorrectly labelled graphs and deadlines which were already in the past at the time it was published. He cannot understand how the consultants in the report recommended an LNG terminal – which Cabinet rejected but which Labour is now proposing.

“I am not convinced about the danger of the gas storage site. I did a lot of research and could only find one incident reported around the world. And even the one that Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi referred to was not an LNG explosion but an old arms dump that exploded, knocking out the power station. It is a damned sight less dangerous than the LPG we use now,” he said.

Prof. Mallia is also sceptical about claims that there are not enough ships,

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saying his research showed there were 160 LNG carriers with more and more being built as the demand for gas increases.

“There are too many contradictory statements being made and I am not convinced by any of the arguments,” he insists.

He is just as unimpressed by the way in which the water supply is taken for granted, noting that predictions of climate change may not mean a decrease in rainfall but that it may become more episodic, so that more of it will be lost to run-off.

He also points out the oft-repeated warning that the water table is becoming saltier as in spite of the registration scheme for boreholes, illegal extraction still exceeds even that being taken out legally by the water company.

“There is also the issue of nitrates that are getting into the water table from agriculture,” he says.

“There were plans to meter the boreholes but these never materialised – so there is no charge for the water taken out and no control over the amount.

The law is not clear as to whether groundwater can really be considered to be ‘public’ property. However, there is hope. A bill on the public domain is being drafted which would identify who owns what on the island. I hope that it will specify groundwater, the way minerals are already included,” he says.

There have been some improvements – but few go far enough, in his opinion.

Take sewage treatment. He laments that it is still very saline because the hotels and factories that use reverse osmosis plants pour the effluent water – which is concentrated – down into the drains.

“We treat the sewage but then we cannot use it as second-grade water for agriculture because it is too salty. Does that make sense?”

Architecture

The meaning of architecture Architecture should haunt us with our own ghosts, says Konrad Buhagiar. Photos by Marc Casolani.

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Printed Thing, a collection of essays, photographs and illustrations published by Architecture Project, should come with a warning that says, ‘Ghosts inside.’ They flutter around and haunt every page, from the dead pigeon and the demolished Valletta City Gate in Columbidae by Bettina Hutschek to the memories stored away in cellars in Mark-Anthony Falzon’s The House May Conceal, But It Will Never Steal.

“A common thread in most essays in A Printed Thing is the creation and discovery of memories,” says Konrad Buhagiar, founding partner of Architecture Project. “The authors are connected by an interest in how buildings become magical spaces – how they house stories and create narratives which in turn layer our identity.

“The result is that there is a pervading sense of Maltese-ness in the book, to the extent that Hans Ibelings gave his

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discussion with the partners the title “Being Maltese”. But then the themes developed also have a Mediterranean feel and are, at the same time, universal.”

In his essay Some Thoughts on a Libretto for a Maltese Opera, Buhagiar also refers to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and the ghosts that populate the literature of former colonies. Ghosts, Buhagiar writes, are “registers of the experience of peripheral dependence, ‘echoes of someone else’s history’.

“The idea came to me at a dinner party I was invited to where all the guests were linked by one ghost story – many claimed that they had seen the spirit of Thomas McSweeney. We bonded through the ghost of a ghost!”

But rather than scary, the ghosts in A Printed Thing are almost playful. In The House May Conceal, But It Will Never

Steal, Falzon writes of a house that plays games with its inhabitants. In another essay by Ephraim Joris, entitled Between Research and Practice, the author describes how mapping the traces of a dancer’s movements in a space, ghosts of a former presence can teach students to appreciate, and design for, not only the measurable qualities of an interior, but also its impending and unpredictable lifespan.

Past and future are inextricably intertwined in this book. Rory Apap Brown grafts the ghosts of future heated debates extracted from contemporary blogs and newspaper cuttings, onto the serene Mediterranean light of Vittorio Boron’s watercolours of 1910. And one is never sure if Timothy Brittain-Catlin’s narrator in Is it Old or is it New? is describing Valletta in 1830, 1930 or 2030.

“Architecture is about people, first and foremost, about those who have

“There is utmost value in passing on our genes, also in the form of knowledge, art or architecture.”

inhabited the spaces architects design and those who have yet to, about the things that happen to people against architectural and urban backdrops”, says Buhagiar. “And architecture carries our collective and individual memories, those that are born and that die and those that survive to become an inexorable part of our heritage.”

“In a similar way, some buildings are acknowledged as part of our heritage, while others are not. The latter, the product of the constant and considerable consumerism which informs our lives, have probably been built in a hurry, with no attention given to the ‘patient research’ that was Le Corbusier’s leitmotif.

“Architecture is deeply rooted in our beliefs. Not long ago, when life was understood as a prelude to eternity, both architect and craftsman were exceptionally conscious of what they would hand down to posterity and buildings, as a result, had an enduring spirit. One has only to read the epitaphs inscribed on the tombstones of St John to catch a glimpse of this obsession with legacy. But the modern condition that conceives life as a mere commodity to be consumed to the full, capturing the moment and living it irrespective of all that which falls outside it has transferred its cynicism to its buildings.

“Despite this pessimism, however, I still believe that everyone asks the same big questions – about who we are,

whether there is a divinity, and what happens when we die. Everyone wishes to find a meaning that justifies their existence. Given the long-term nature of buildings, this search is unavoidably reflected in our architecture.

“Heritage itself – including our built heritage – is a concept that stems from this search for meaning. Malta’s architecture contains our forefathers’ search for meaning. That is when it becomes our heritage.

“There is ultimate value in passing on our genes, also in the form of knowledge, art or architecture,” says Buhagiar.

Heritage, for Buhagiar, is also what makes buildings beautiful.

“I believe that beauty is the natural consequence of effort. And in turn, effort carries through the ages, becoming heritage – a beautiful house has a better possibility of surviving, like a well-raised child who has a better chance of grow upinto a strong adult capable of dealing with an ever-changing environment.

“Effort also entails discipline. An endless supply of materials with no discipline is the prelude to wastefulness, redundancy and ugliness. But the availability of limited materials leads to a forced economy of means and ingeniousness.

“Sustainability, a term that is commonly used in the jargon of a consumerist society, was inevitable when

resources and materials were not easy to come by. Our vernacular architecture had over the centuries adopted systems that provide the building with the ability to adapt to its specific micro-climate, remaining cool in summer and trapping hot air in winter. Today, unfortunately, mechanical means of climate control only do away with the effort required to design a space where thermal comfort is achieved naturally.

“It is this discipline, distilled by tradition, its lessons absorbed individually and collectively by the anonymous builder and craftsman which is at the root of the homogenous urban texture of our villages. No need for the policies and building regulations that have been created today to guarantee order and harmony but which have produced instead the exact opposite, a cacophony of styles, materials, and tastes.”

A Printed Thing is a tribute of one of Malta’s leading practices to the heritage that provides the framework of values by which we live, but also, and especially, that serves as the inspiration and springboard for their own architectural work. It seems to say that their recognition of the accomplishments of our ancestors could best be recorded by their struggle not to abdicate their role as carriers of that tradition, keeping it alive, changing and responsive to new challenges, no matter how much effort that will take.

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Online

Thanks to his work as a brand builder, creative director and storyteller Sean Patrick Sullivan has won over a dozen awards for excellence in online marketing. He’s represented by The BAO House in Toronto and Brand Agent Inc in Manhattan.

Websites: an obituary The website is human history’s greatest and most all-encompassing creative medium. Yet in most markets, it’s dying a slow, premature death, thanks to that insidious interloper known as the app. Sean Patrick Sullivan explains how this happened, why it’s bad for everyone’s business, and what Maltese creatives and marketers can do about it.

The day before our presentation, our other creative director had an idea.

While he didn’t know how to get people to the site we wanted to build, he did know how to get them coming back for more, whether they liked it or not. His pitch was to remove all promotional and otherwise result-oriented functionality from the website. Instead, we would encourage visitors to do only two things.

First, let’s make visitors believe in and fall in love with the brand itself, without any pressure that they ever do anything about it. Second, let’s make them fall in love with something else at the same time, the website’s soundtrack, which was conceived as an album of privately commissioned dance music unavailable in any store.

I

’m going to tell you a story. At first, it’s going to seem like it’s about me, but it’s not. What it’s really and truly about is the website as an art form and business platform; its rise and fall over the past decade; and why you, as a Maltese businessperson, are actually the perfect person to restore websites to their podium in the marketing mix of companies around the world.

In 2003, while directing editorial strategy for a digital marketing and communications agency, I was asked to furnish concepts for an online marketing campaign intended to help re-launch a youth-oriented do-ityourself hair colour brand.

To do so, I shared countless conversations (not to mention espressos and madeleines) with our brilliant strategists and researchers. What could we do that would be new and fresh, bold and edgy, while at the same time deep and rich enough to keep people coming back for the two or three visits we knew it would take to convince them to dye

their own hair intense shades of cherry, indigo and aubergine? You see, this was before the age of social media. As a traffic-generating tool, search-engine optimisation ruled, but it didn’t work that great for products that satisfied desires people didn’t know they had yet.

It was too... intentional.

Stressing us out all the more – and as anyone who worked in the field at the time would tell you – all of us were starting to get very worried that we were spending too much time creating rich, delicious website experiences and not enough time figuring out how to get people to drop by, say hello, and look around. There was no virtual avenue on which to situate our digital dreamscape.

Over time, our integrity, which we found rather inconvenient and yet couldn’t shake, knotted our stomachs.

We knew we could razzle-dazzle our client into approving just about any idea, as long as it was flashy, but we wanted this particular story to end with some return on investment.

Why the second gesture? Because it will inspire visitors to download (what we then called) a music player to their computer desktops. Rather than contain the music, it will stream it, requiring an internet connection and creating a permanent desktop installation, through which we can push news, offers, promotions, and most of all encouragements to give oneself a hardcore makeover moment. We might even be able to collect data while we’re at it.

Our pitch worked, there turned out to be substantial return on investment, and we won multiple awards, which many parties in our industry stood up and noticed. But more than that, according to some, we had inadvertently created the prototype for what would become known as the mobile app. I would later view this chapter of my career as my very own Frankenstein moment.

Let’s ditch the shoptalk for just a bit and think about art history instead.

There has never been an art form quite like the website. Not only can it be used as a platform for experiences unique

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Online

unto itself, but it can also be deployed to narrowcast just about anything else human beings craft and design: text, still and moving images, three-dimensional renderings of objects and building – the list goes on.

Every browser window holds the promise of a multimedia, multisensory orgy, one barely hinted at by hieroglyphics and comic strips but never really equalled.

While standardisation of new media forms always happens – following the outrageous experimentalism of the 1980s, music videos of the 1990s neatly arranged themselves along the lines of two or three hyper-saturated, marketfriendly motifs – that’s not why websites are so dull and lifeless nowadays. Rather, it’s because of a re-direction of funds from creative to technical services, all to facilitate the development of multiple

“Become the first nation in the world to select creative elegance and customer respect over grabby, greedy billboards in the brain.”

Yet websites, like the magazine you’re reading at this very moment, require people to notice, lean in, make a choice, actually take the time to visit. For a marketer, at least upon first blush, that’s unacceptable. What’s preferable is something that’s unavoidable, irrefutably there, insinuating itself into one’s neurocircuitry until will power is dissolved and purchase is made. This is precisely why so many agencies, marketers, and trend spotters started to favour app over web development. It wasn’t about providing what customers wanted or needed. It was a gold rush to claim computer-desktop (and later mobile-device) real estate. Worse than that, apps have become extra sensory organs – they impact human consciousness and comprehension and are an attempt to declare eminent-domain rights on our brains.

So where are we now?

First of all, there may be exceptions, but for the most part, if you were to compare websites built in 2003 versus 2013, you would see an across-the-board reverse evolution. Contemporary sites are actually less rich, less innovative, and less provocative than a decade ago.

There’s a crushing sameness that makes life easier for designers, programmers, and vice presidents, and at the same exact time far worse for everyone who actually uses them to explore and experience new products.

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apps for multiple platforms owned by Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

Now that social media has gone fully mobile – more people access Facebook via mobile than desktop – we can no longer justify the app. There are other ways to get people to our brand online. And we need not be so craven or delusional as to insist that customers populate their already cluttered screens with icons of our existence.

Nor do marketers need to tolerate the Byzantine mess of multiple apps and competing ecosystems just to represent a single brand. What was once an open field of opportunity has become a gilded prison of conflicting analytics, administrative horrors, and shrinking budgets per project.

May I be candid? My friend Danielle Harroch, the founder and director of the New York City-based online marketing firm Brand Agent, puts it best when she says: “I understand why people love apps. But, with rare exceptions, they’re more trouble than they’re worth, for both customers and developers. Right now, we have an opportunity to go back to the “good old days” when we built a site once – really, really well – and called it a day. Why? Because now we have amazing digital-publishing tools (like Virb, Wordpress, and Squarespace) at our disposal. And there are also responsive design technologies that automatically re-design and re-shuffle sites so it doesn’t

matter whether you’re on a laptop, tablet, or mobile device or immersed in iOS versus Android versus Google. The browser handles it. Which means we can go back to being innovative, immersive, and making the world a better, simpler place.”

So now the time has come when I reveal to you how and why you, as a Maltese businessperson, can cause a quantum shift in the digital space. Believe it or not, it starts with a collision of two things you may or may not know. First, your country’s creative output is being watched. Ask an ad agency executive in Toronto or Manhattan and they’ll tell you: Malta is hot right now. Of course, you need to take this with a pinch of salt.

North American creative types love to declare exotic locales as trendy, even when they’ve never been there. Still, all eyes are on you, at least for this moment in time, so you might as well serve the world something worth stealing.

Second, your backwardness in digital media is rivalled only by your affection for print, as evidenced by a mindboggling amount of magazines serving a population of only 400,000 plus. This means your attention spans haven’t been shot yet; that you still have it in you to contemplate and consider; and that you can determine how your online marketplace evolves on your own terms.

My advice? Reject the app, as you would a jilted lover who simply won’t get the message. Become the first nation in the world to select creative elegance and customer respect over grabby, greedy billboards in the brain.

Instead, embrace the current generation of digital publishing tools, as well as responsive design formulas, that make it possible for you to build once and build well. And when you do, look around and become inspired by your deliriously dense architecture and cityscapes. Their overlapping eras and styles, at once dizzying and perfectly manageable, provide a historically and culturally inspired point of departure that can only enhance your own brand identity. Not just the one you’re marketing, but the one you live and breathe as a businessperson living and working exactly and precisely where you already do.

Always there to brighten your day

www.gasanmamo.com

Msida Road, Gzira GZR 1405, Malta | Tel: 21 345 123 | Fax: 21 345 377 | insurance@gasanmamo.com GasanMamo Insurance is authroized to carry on business of insurance regulated by the MFSA

Environment

What power to the people?

Malta’s energy sector is at a crossroads, says Alan Pulis. Photo by Marc Casolani.

2012). As an EU Member State, Malta is committed to achieve a 10% renewables target by 2020, a state of play that suggests some worrying deviations from a non-mandatory renewables trajectory proposed under a National Renewable Energy Action Plan approved by the EU Commission.

The latest addition to Malta’s power generation system is a controversial heavy fuel oil-fired plant as an extension to the Delimara power station. The engine forms part of Malta’s efforts to modernise its power generation facilities, finally decommissioning the aging Marsa power station in the process and a Malta-Sicily power grid interconnection.

T

he global financial crisis that has crippled Greece, Spain and Italy has also tested the resilience of Malta’s economy. Events unfolded at a time when the performance and prospects of the islands’ power generation sector have steadily risen to the forefront of the national agenda, reaching a salient peak during the 2013 general election campaign. The focus lies with utility bills and their impact on the economy. The inner harbour residents’ outcry about black dust manifestations – the resultant fall-out, ostensibly, from the Marsa power station emissions – has heightened public sensitivity about air quality and citizens’ right to safe, healthy living. The transport sector still needs to be addressed more seriously.

What does the future hold?

Economic growth and prosperity, and hence the sustainability of social welfare, can only be guaranteed by a stable, secure and flexible energy market. The economic perspective requires that market forces should be allowed to operate to ensure maximum efficiency in the use of fossil fuel resources and to correct any resultant market failure taking form of, say, emissions.

While Malta’s National Environment Policy cautiously advocates a stepped approach on environmental tax reform (MTEC, 2012), the Nordic countries’ experience (Andersen, 2004) and more

22 - Money / Issue 17

recently Australia’s, suggest that world economies are perceiving the shift from a tax on labour to a tax on pollution with a more open mind.

World energy demand is expected to increase by 45% between 2006 and 2030 and shall largely be sustained by conventional fossil fuels, with a consequent rise in atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions to circa 27% above present levels (World Energy Outlook, 2010). Dependence on coal, oil and gas will therefore persist, as will soaring and unpredictable energy prices, providing economies with the incentive to decarbonise and enabling a shift towards more sustainable carbon-free methods of power production. The global renewables sector has made very significant strides ahead in recent decades with the tapping of solar, wind and other clean energy sources becoming increasingly affordable despite limitations. Meanwhile, postFukushima, the fate of nuclear power and how it will influence the future global energy mix still hangs in the balance.

But the benchmark for Malta is Europe and EU projections are quite telling: renewable energy made up about 8.4% of EU gross inland consumption in 2008 and this figure is expected to almost double to 15% by 2030 (Eurostat, 2010). In Malta, where a National Energy Policy has just been approved, the share of renewable energy consumption in 2010 and 2011 was 0.88% and 1.12% respectively (NEP,

The shift from HFO-fired power generation systems to modern, highefficiency natural gas firing technology is a first step to decarbonise economies.

Irrespective of state-of-the-art pollution abatement methods that may be employed, concerns about the health impacts that arise from HFO combustion and the prolonged exposure to HFOderived emissions will persevere and governments and society will always have an economic and moral burden to carry.

Natural gas is expected to account for circa 24% of the bloc’s total energy consumption in 2030, with HFO firing decreasing from 36.5% overall in 2006 to 32% in 2030 (Eurostat, 2010). Gas plants are quick to start up and adjust to demand, are quicker and less costly to build, and have a smaller environmental footprint. Natural gas is the least carbonintensive conventional fuel, meaning that less carbon emissions are produced per kilowatt-hour generated. Based on current demand the world is estimated to have over 200 years of natural gas available (Exxon Mobil, 2013) (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Remaining global natural gas

Alan Pulis graduated in education with chemistry from the University of Malta and pursued his studies to a Diploma in Environmental Science which he obtained in 1996 while he was already engaged as a teacher of Chemistry and Environmental Science at the Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School, Naxxar. He furthered his studies in Environmental Management at Imperial College, University of London, obtaining a Master of Science with Distinction in 2006.

Pulis now lectures on Environmental Science and Chemistry at GCHSS, has also lectured at MCAST and holds a Teaching Associate post at the University of Malta where he lectures at undergraduate and post-graduate level. He also tutors dissertation projects. Pulis is a member of the National Consultative Council on Climate Change and the Sectoral sub-Committee on Environment and Climate Change that is presently discussing Malta’s allocation of EU funds under Operational Programme II covering the period 2014-2020.

resource, in thousand trillion cubic feet (Exxon Mobil, 2013). “Conventional” and “unconventional” are arbirary terms: unconventional gas supplies become conventional once the technology to extract develops.

So far, the EU’s emissions trading scheme remains the biggest global success in the implementation of a market mechanism designed to reduce Europe’s carbon footprint cost-effectively. Europe’s carbon market prospects have been strengthened through the Climate and Energy Package, adopted by the EU27 in December 2008.

1988 was a landmark year for Malta, when a newly elected government decided to embark on massive infrastructural reform at Enemalta, to date, Malta’s sole energy provider.

The project eventually materialised into an HFO-fired 120MW steam plant at Delimara, a pristine peninsula in Malta’s south, subsequently followed by open and combined cycle gas turbines that levelled generating capacity at 310MW. The first exhaust fumes released by the Delimara power station in the early 1990s signalled the flourishing of the Maltese economy in the next decade or so. The Delimara steam plant is now scheduled for decommissioning in 2018 (NEP, 2012).

EU accession in 2004 brought about the new reality of stiff legally-binding benchmarks to which Malta’s power generation sector is expected to abide.

The EU Energy Roadmap 2050 sets the ambitious goal to decarbonise across the bloc to the tune of achieving between 80 and 95% GHG emissions cuts by mid-century. Malta’s recently expressed vision for the environment in this direction (MTEC, 2012) entails more than meets the eye: aspiring towards fossil fuel post-recession economic growth with a free-of-charge carbon footprint is simply not on.

Inefficient power generation technology is a liability and must be replaced at the soonest. There is then the issue of raising awareness on carbon footprint – ARMS Ltd. is doing a good job in providing this information to its clients with utility bill statements.

Since the first days of the Delimara power station, Malta registered a 49% increase in GHG emissions between 1990 and 2010 (TERI, 2010-2011). The power sector contributed to about 75% of Malta’s GHG emissions total in 2007, compared to almost 20% that derived from transport sources (Figure 2).

Curbing GHG emissions from power generation is thus only one aspect of Malta’s energy challenge – given the logistics, we could face an even tougher challenge with transport emissions that are projected to rise to 550Gg CO2eq in 2020 compared to the 509Gg CO2eq levels for 2007 (MEPA, 2009).

is estimated to have contributed to the removal of 2% of emissions in 2010 (TERI 2010 – 2011). Note the anomaly that is observed for 2009 where GHG emissions total had dropped to 2805.552Gg compared to 2947.924Gg of the previous year 2008 (Figure 3). This lowering in emissions probably reflects the response of the Maltese economy to the international financial crisis. The correlation with GDP is produced as Figure 4.

Figure 4: Correlation between GHG emissions trend and GDP as forecasted up to 2020. GDP dataset 1995 – 2009 was sourced at http://www.centralbankmalta.org/).

Figure 2: GHG inventory system for CO2-eq, 1990 – 2007 (Source: MEPA, www. mepa.org.mt, accessed on 9th January 2013).

Carbon emissions cannot be treated in a vacuum. They are intertwined with economic growth patterns. 2020 projections for the relationship between Malta’s GHG emissions trends (in Gigagrammes, Gg CO2eq) and gross domestic product (GDP) are provided in Figures 3 and 4 below, starting with a GHG emissions forecast alone in Figure 3. The projections are based on the 19952007 dataset and were devised using the FORECAST function on an Excel spreadsheet.

Figure 3: GHG (with LULUCF) trends for Malta projected to 2020, based on the 1995 – 2009 dataset (Source: National Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report for Malta, 1990 - 2009).

Land-use, land-use change and forestry

On a per capita basis, Malta’s GHG trend consists of a 29.2% increase since 1990 to 7.3 tonnes per capita in 2010 as compared to a decrease by 20.5% for the EU27 over the same period down to 9.4 tonnes per capita. The contrasting trends suggest that while Europe’s energy mix diversification efforts have been relatively successful, the same success has not materialised locally. Any decreases in energy and emissions intensity trends locally should be interpreted cautiously and do not necessarily reflect a long-term decoupling of the Maltese economy with energy use, and thus GHG releases (TERI 2010-2011).

The projections for 2020 give Malta’s GDP at €7,754m, with GHG emissions at 3406Gg CO2eq, compared to €5,575m and 2987Gg CO2eq respectively for 2007.

The analysis assumes linear correlation with an economic growth trend largely fuelled by conventional fossil energy sources, the present form of which is low-sulphur HFO. It is also assumed that the economy should not incur any major shocks until 2020. The impacts from improved feed-in tariffs on renewables are not factored in. Neither are any major investments similar to the recent Delimara power station extension that could, in due course, improve power generation efficiency and hence lower

Money / Issue 17 - 23

Environment

GHG emissions per kilowatt-hour generated. The official statistic for Malta’s projection correlating GHG emissions with electricity demand under various scenarios is given in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Forecasted electricity demand and projected GHG emissions from public electricity and heat production – effect of Enemalta Corporation technical measures only (Source: MEPA, 2009).

The “Without measures” scenario corresponds closely to the projections produced in Figures 3 and 4. The “With measures” and “With additional measures” projections take stock of the expected impacts from the implementation of various energy and climate mitigation policies designed to lower Malta’s carbon footprint. These policies include the modernisation of Enemalta infrastructure with a shift to natural gas firing. The salient feature in the Figure 5 dateline is certainly the 2011-2014 transition period during which Malta is expected to make headway towards moving into low carbon mode. There are two key elements upon which this projected transition period depends: firstly, the Delimara power station BWSC extension and its mode of firing and secondly, the cable interconnection with Sicily.

The contemplation is not really about the nation’s economic growth forecast trends and expectations. From an environmental standpoint, the 3406Gg CO2eq GHG forecast for 2020 also needs to be assessed in view of Malta’s obligations under the EU’s carbon capand-trade regime. What really matters between now and 2020 is whether Malta shall succeed to steer its economy towards green growth based on clean power generation technology, notably

24 - Money / Issue 17

gas, simultaneously making headway in the tapping of renewables within EU target parameters.

Malta’s political leaders now have the energy sector breathing down their necks. Prototype engineering at Delimara with the BWSC extension, concern with black dust emissions from the Marsa power station, delays in the interconnection with Sicily that is now scheduled for completion by end 2013 (NEP, 2012) has raised public interest in the energy sector to an alltime high. The Marsa power station decommissioning cannot be expected until end 2014. Nonetheless, in recent years government has thoroughly engaged in adopting an extensive climate mitigation and adaptation policy with a clear climate action plan for Malta that is intimately linked to developments in the energy sector (MRRA, 2009).

generation efficiency considerations aside, Enemalta has long been advised favourably on gas firing in view of Malta’s emissions commitments under EU law (EGP, 2006).

The climate mitigation strategy modelled projections for gas firing as from 20152016 clearly indicate the extent to which Malta’s carbon footprint could be reduced under such scenario (MRRA, 2009). The net beneficiaries will obviously be the economy, health and the environment.

However, there has recently been a significant shifting of timeframes: under the National Energy Policy the switch to natural gas firing is envisaged for 2019 at the earliest under a fixed pipeline interconnection scenario.

Malta cannot afford to wait.

References Andersen, M.S. (2010), Europe’s experience with carbon-energy taxation, S.A.P.I.EN.S Vol.3 / No.2.

Publisher: Institut Veolia Environnement.

Teething troubles will always be on almost everything let alone on a scale of modernising power generation protocols.

Matters may have been smoothed out with the Italian authorities in the wake of Ragusa residents voicing opposition to the 200MW interconnector project, but the incident surely serves as food for thought. Sicily’s power grid interconnection itself with the Italian mainland is presently weak (NEP, 2012) and this could limit Malta’s interconnection potential at least in the short term.

Background on Energy in Europe, Information prepared for the European Council, EU Commission, February 2011.

That Malta’s economy stands to benefit from the possibility of power imports at competitive prices while enabling a diversification of the islands’ energy mix is beyond doubt. However, this must be accompanied by reliable alternative means of conventional power generation to guarantee security and flexibility of energy supply. These means must also be logistically independent.

Malta’s fragile economy cannot afford the incalculable strategic risks that inevitably emerge from an over-reliance, on fixed interconnection.

National Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Report for Malta 1990 – 2009, Malta Resources Authority (MRA), March 2011.

That the way forward at Delimara is natural gas is not an “if”, but how and by when. Interconnection and power

http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/newsdetails/news/ national/Ragusa-opposes-Malta-Italy-interconnectorpressure-group-vows-to-barricade-works-20130113, accessed on January 13, 2013.

Electricity Generation Plan, Enemalta Corporation, June 2006.

Energy roadmap 2050, EU Commission, 2012.

Malta’s Biennial Report on Policies and Measures and Projected Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2009, MEPA, May 2009.

Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA), http://www.mepa.org.mt/GHG-Results1?sector=Energy&gas=CO2-eq&flag=1&min=1990&ma x=2007&sub=0, accessed on 9th January 2013 National Allocation Plan for Malta 2008 – 2012, Government of Malta, February 2008.

National Environment Policy, Ministry for Tourism, the Environment and Culture, February 2012.

National Strategy for Policy and Abatement Measures Relating to the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs (MRRA), Government of Malta, September 2009.

The Central Bank of Malta, http://www. centralbankmalta.org/, accessed on January 13, 2013.

The Environment Report Indicators 2010 – 2011, Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA).

The National Energy Policy for the Maltese Islands 2012, Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs, December 2012.

The Outlook for Energy: a view to 2040, Exxon Mobil (2013). www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18662560, accessed on January 12, 2013.

What’s your

choice

?

ITIL® Foundation / Service Operations Cisco CCNP Switch / CCNA Security Prince2 Foundation / Practitioner Microsoft MS Projects / MCITP Server 2008 Web Design Introduction to Web Design Linux LPIC-1 / LPIC-2

this

April www.cleardimension.net T: 27018611 E:Info@cleardimension.net

IT

A service that clicks An online store is helping Golden Gate deliver a more efficient and cost-effective service.

G

olden Gate, stationers and printers, have launched their new e-store – a faster, easier and cost-effective way of doing business. You can source all your office supplies, printing requirements and self-inking stamps from an e-store that has been built and designed with the end user in mind. Moreover, it is backed by a company with over 60 years of experience in B2B stationery and powered by the latest software on the market.

Golden Gate has been offering online shopping since 2007. As part of its 60year celebrations, the company embarked on a rebranding exercise that included the development of its second-generation e-store. This new e-store is powered

by Shireburn Software, a Maltese company established in 1983 and which today consists of a team of more than 30 professionals.

Paul Ellul, Golden Gate Managing Director, and John De Giorgio, Shireburn Software Managing Director, explain why www.goldengate.com.mt is fast, easy and saves you money.

John de Giorgio

Shireburn Software Managing Director Why should local companies invest in an e-store?

Online sales are an increasingly important channel for B2C and B2B sales. As volumes through the online channel pick up pace, so does the importance of ensuring that online sales complement your physical stores, giving your clients convenience of choice.

What are the main functionalities of Shireburn’s e-store software?

Paul Ellul AND TANIA FARRUGIA

Golden Gate Joint Managing Directors What are the advantages for a local company to invest in an e-store?

What are the main functionalities of your new e-store?

There are many, but the main ones are that companies with their own import capacity can supply consumers from stock and within 24 hours. Another advantage is the ability to maintain an online presence, which gives the company a great image.

Our new e-store offers a host of powerful options, including a search function. It also presents clear images to help clients choose the products they need.

What makes an e-store cost-effective?

We have integrated it with our back office software, thus eliminating the need to deploy valuable resources to manage the store.

In our case, clients bill themselves and all stocks are deducted in real time – this saves us resource (labour costs).

What were the main aims for developing your second-generation e-store?

We have been offering online ordering since 2007 and we felt the need to upgrade our product in order to gain advantage over others who had copied our first e-store concept. We also wanted to make our store faster and easier to use. I think that in this regard, we achieved our objective.

26 - Money / Issue 17

Is your e-store integrated with other platforms?

Why did you choose Shireburn Software as your developer?

When we sat down with them and we explained what we wanted, they responded to that and came back with a proposal that worked around that initial concept. Most other software companies came back with solutions that worked around their concepts.

This made Shireburn Software an easy choice.

The Shireburn e-store enables users to extend their operations online both for B2C and B2B sales, directly integrated their operational data, with single point of data management for stock details, orders and payments. The software allows you to extend your sales reach while maintaining low operating costs and high efficiency.

Other features include integrated content management, configurable layout and design, Google Analytics integration, cookie support and dynamic shopping cart.

The e-store supports contracted pricing, customer registration, multiple payment gateways and extensive integration with Shireburn products including stock details, images, sales orders, invoices and cash sales.

Shireburn e-store allows customisation and configuration functionality, from custom user interfaces, menus and design templates to tailor-made functionality, depending on the type of business or products.

What were the challenges of the Golden Gate project?

It was essential that the Shireburn e-store not only met Golden Gate’s branding aspirations but also resulted in higher and better sales.

Since implementing the Shireburn e-store, the average number of items purchased by each client and average sales value have gone up and administrative work has gone down.

Creating digital stories Zak and Benji Borg, founders of Anchovy Studios, explain how they help brands tell compelling stories through digital creative technologies.

When was Anchovy Studios set up and with what mission?

Anchovy Studios, a digital creative studio, boasts a small and passionate team, specialising in social media, interface design, mobile applications and digital creative technologies through which we express a brand’s image.

Anchovy Studios helps brands and agencies connect with consumers to solve business and marketing problems by telling compelling stories. The young startup strives to deliver innovative solutions and to tell stories through the latest digital mediums in a seamless manner.

Our mission is to express a brand’s voice in an original fashion. We partner with ad agencies and brands to tell stories to share.

What are the advantages of outsourcing social media presence?

With social media marketing you can enrich your brand’s potential, develop faithful customers and push additional traffic to your site. Getting it right can thrust you ahead of your competitors, but getting it wrong will damage your brand in a blink of an eye.

Social media requires accuracy and dedication – the fruits of a good campaign are normally cherished immediately. In addition, you can fine-tune a campaign on a day-to-day or hourly basis. This is possible due to the in-depth reports provided by the platforms, ensuring you reach your target market and analyse the campaign once it’s over, something that is not achievable with traditional marketing channels such as print.

There are two advantages to outsourcing social media interactions to a specialist firm: reducing costs and gaining access

to professionals. While some companies outsource because they don’t know enough about social media, other companies understand that you cannot be an expert in all domains and outsource social media interactions to a specialist agencies such as Anchovy Studios. Specialist companies can afford to have professionals who are constantly updating their knowledge of the field and who are highly proficient in the target language.

What value does the partnership with IM.MK hold to Anchovy Studios and its clients?

Anchovy Studios is taking social media marketing competitions to the next level by developing tailor-made competitions and complete campaigns.

Anchovy Studios recently signed an exciting partnership with a leading international Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer. Together they have already transformed numerous ideas into effective Facebook apps and marketing campaigns, resulting in more than 150 successful Facebook campaigns that have helped brands such as McDonald’s and Microsoft to meet the right customer needs. This partnership is a major breakthrough and allows Anchovy Studios to create powerful, feature-rich competitions with beautiful interfaces.

What products and services does Anchovy Studios offer?

We do not offer a predefined set of services – rather, we treat each project as its own unique identity. This allows us to meet all our clients’ digital needs, right from the creation and management of a social media campaign to conceptualising and creating a state of the art website and custom tools for business intelligence.

To deliver the best results, we work in close collaboration with the best talent in the industry, such as Kurt Arrigo our photography partner, James Vernon and Martin Bonnici our filming partners, La Valette club, and integrated marketing communication agency MPS Ltd. How do you help your clients build trust?

As humans, without trust, our relationships can never go past a certain

level. The same goes for brands building relationships with consumers. Before true customer engagement can happen, companies must first build a social media dialogue that leads to a trusting relationship.

We build trust on behalf of our clients by communicating relevant and interactive content, enriching the fan base with valuable information and ensuring that the communication channel is transparent and that content is simple, fun and responsive.

What projects have you recently worked on and what has been their success factor?

Despite only opening our office doors a couple of months ago we have already worked on some unique projects. In the social media arena our greatest achievement to date was working on the Milk is Good Naturally campaign. Here, we assisted with a Facebook competition, which donated €1 to Life Cycle every time a user took part in the competition. We also created a custom solution through which we tracked the athlete in real time on the Facebook page, as well as when taking part in the Life Cycle challenge in Australia. In the social media arena we also created a competition for Head & Shoulders.

Another very successful and innovative augmented reality campaign was the GasanMamo 2013 calendar in which we animated all of the images, allowing users to bring the images to life through a mobile app, which worked both on iOS and Android devices.

In 2012 we were finalists for two awards by the Malta Communications Authority, namely best use of technology in the tourism industry and best mobile application. We are currently working on some very exciting social media campaigns and other digital creative solutions, which will hit the local Maltese market in April.

Money / Issue 17 - 27

IT

This way to learning Jean Paul Degaetano, Director at Clear Dimension, explains how ICT training helps your business become a leader.

They expect information to be delivered when and where they want it, in a form that’s customised to their needs. They want opportunities to master critical skills and grow in their careers. And they expect to be part of the discussion, adding their expertise on key issues.

Supporting all these needs can seem like an impossible task – however, in today’s hyper-competitive world, that’s critical to getting ahead and staying ahead. Through our partners Skillsoft and E.Business Solutions, we offer online training to any company that wishes to train its employees from their workplace or at home.

How important is training, education and continuous improvement in the ICT sector?

The ICT sector plays an important role in the economy in its own right and as a vital supplier to the private, public and third sectors.

The ICT sector relies on a mix of hard technical and soft skills among its workforce, with a trend towards general up-skilling across the different categories of ICT occupations. For example, the demand for low-end developers and database administrators is expected to be replaced by demand for business analysts, sales specialists and high-end developers. There has been a shift in the skills mix of the sector with lower-skilled jobs being replaced by higher-skilled jobs and that up-skilling is expected to continue in the foreseeable future.

As demand for specialist skills evolves very quickly in the ICT sector, the risk of skills obsolescence is particularly important. Recently, growing needs have been identified for hard ICT professional skills in fields such as data privacy, server technology, general networking and network infrastructure. Companies are compelled to educate and train their employees or risk being left behind.

What courses does Clear Dimension offer and at what levels?

Our core training is focused on Cisco, Linux, ITIL and Microsoft and all lead to industry certified certifications at associate, professional and expert levels. We also provide on-demand

28 - Money / Issue 17

training and e-learning solutions through Skillsoft, a leading SaaS provider for global enterprises, government and education agencies, and small to medium-sized businesses.

Our IT courses include networking, programming, operating systems, security, telephony and data centres. Our business courses feature project and risk management, ITIL service management, and business analysis.

Are all your courses industry certified?

All our courses lead to industry certifications and employers demand that training leads to certification. Students can take industry exams at out centre through Prometric or Pearson Vue testing centres.

What career paths do your courses lead to?

There is a vast range of jobs in ICT. The skills required differ from area to area – because it has become extremely challenging, ICT professionals continually focus on improving usability and efficiency in their field. Career paths range from programmer/developer (application, game), analyst (software implementation, computer system), administrator (systems, network, database) and managers (information, IT, project, security) to data modeller, engineer (computer, software, software support), technicians (tech support), and designer (web, graphic) Do you also offer e-learning solutions?

Today’s diverse, multi-generational workforce needs access to learning 24/7.

Are your courses offered on a part-time or full-time basis?

Our courses are offered on a part-time basis mostly in the evenings although some companies prefer to send their employees during working hours to get away from work and really concentrate on what they have come to learn. These are normally short courses lasting a week. We also do a combination of evenings and day courses.

What is the profile of Clear Dimension trainers?

Our core trainers are academically qualified up to a Masters degree and are also industry certified in their field. With regards to Cisco certifications, we have two of our trainers who are qualified to offer train the trainer courses on an international level. We are the only Cisco Instructor training centre in Malta.

Any new developments in the coming months?

We are coming to the end of our two EU projects ECVET (European credit conversion system for VET institutions) and EQAVET (European Quality Assurance for VET institutions) which was certainly a great experience for Clear Dimension. We are looking to involve ourselves in other EU projects to help develop the frameworks needed to support the ever-changing needs in society. In the meantime, we are putting a lot of focus on setting up our second base in the Middle East (Dubai) and will be participating at the GETEX fair this April, which brings together the region’s largest group of training institutes and higher education providers.

the new di-ve.com – news, lifestyle and more The new di-ve.com is a news and lifestyle portal and much more: providing quality information through a multimedia platform. In a fast and media cluttered environment, di-ve.com says only what is useful. Our team has a practical and can-do approach through which clients and advertisers can benefit from bespoke solutions that can be tailor made to suit their requirements.

www.di-ve.com sales@di-ve.com (356) 2148 0518/9

Business Leaders

Moves to checkmate Money visits the networking event of the year.

specialising in recruitment, and Mdina Partnership, a training and development company.

T

he last Friday of every month is typically dress down day in various offices around Malta.

On the other hand, on Friday, February 22, more than 350 delegates put on their suits and made their way to Montekristo Estates for the networking event of the year.

Moves to Checkmate was the fourth Business Leaders Malta conference. The networking conference, which carried the central theme of strategy, brought together chairpersons, chief executives and top managers. This year’s theme was acted on from feedback submitted by last year’s One

Second Ahead conference attendees.

This was once again a successful event for Business Leaders Malta, a joint venture made up of three diverse companies namely Jugs, which focuses on events management, KonnektSearch and Selection,

Alex Mifsud, Ixaris Systems Chief Executive, was among the speakers at the conference.

His session focused on strategic turning points encountered while on his 10-year journey to building the online payments company Ixaris. Retired RAF pilot Group Captain Robert Grattan compared military strategy to business strategy.

Tukaya Hirano, Microsoft General Manager, multicountry, central and Eastern Europe headquarters, also shared his own experiences on how strategy impacts successful results.

A panel discussion was also held. The panel was made up of Alf Mizzi & Sons Chief Executive Alec Mizzi, Simonds Farsons Cisk p.l.c. Group

SPEAKERS Prof Philip Baker QC, Barrister, Gray’s Inn Tax Chambers, UK Prof Pasquale Pistone, Prof of Tax Law at the University of Salerno

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN EUROPEAN TAX LAW The MIM 7th International Taxation Conference 2013 22nd March 2013 For further information kindly contact: Malta Institute of Management ‘Block B’ Orange Grove, Birbal Street, Balzan, Malta.

Tel: 21453097 Fax: 21451167 Email: tzahra@maltamanagement.com www.maltamanagement.com

Media partner

30 - Money / Issue 17

Dr Tom O’Shea, Lecturer, Centre Commercial Law of Studies, Queen Mary University of London Dr Niklas Schmidt, Partner, Wolf Theiss, Vienna, Austria Mr Vinod Kalloe, Counsel , International and EU Tax, KPMG Meijburg & Co, Amsterdam Dr Laura De Lisa, Dottore Commercialista Revisore Legale, Rödl Partner, Italy Dr Robert Attard, Tax Partner and Tax Policy Leader for Central & South East Europe, Ernst & Young Dr Neville Gatt, Tax Partner, PWC Dr Conrad Cassar Torregiani, Leader International Tax, Deloitte Main Sponsor

In collaboration with

Gold Sponsor

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Bronze Sponsor

Image opposite - from left to right: Margrith Lutschg-Emmenegger, President and Vice Chairman, FIMBank p.l.c., Dr Alec A. Mizzi, Director and CEO, Alf Mizzi & Sons Ltd., Ludolf Rasterhoff, Chief Operations Officer, Melita p.l.c, Joanna Ripard, business journalist, David Curmi, Chief Executive Officer, MSV Life p.l.c., Norman Aquilina, Group Chief Executive, Simonds Farsons Cisk p.l.c., Marc Jordan, Head of Operations, De La Rue Currency and Security Print Ltd.

Chief Executive Norman Aquilina, MSV Life p.l.c. Chief Executive David Curmi, De la Rue Currency and Security Print head of operations Marc Jordan, Fimbank p.l.c.

President Margrith LutschgEmmenegger, and Melita p.l.c. Chief Operations Officer Ludolf Rasterhoff. Together with discussion facilitator, business journalist Joanna Ripard, the panel discussed issues surrounding strategic thinking and planning and how these can be used to gain competitive advantage.

a company successful such as communication and team cohesiveness as well as reward and recognition.

The companies were split in three categories according to company size for an overall award. The top performing company size 20-99 employees was Nectar Group of Companies. Cardinal Health took home the award for overall winner in the 100-299 employee range and Actavis took the award for overall winner in the 300+ employee category.

During the conference Josef Said, managing director at Konnekt, gave a short talk about the BLM Awards. This is a new branch of the BLM brand which companies can participate in – 10 awards were presented to the 26 participating companies.

The awards focused on different aspects that make

The last session was called, ‘Boom Shake the Room!’ and was led by Jugs Malta Managing Director Gianni Zammit. Participants were given special musical instruments which were used to play Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water. This was a great way to end the conference on a positive note.

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Before leaving the event, attendees were asked to place their business cards into a draw, giving them the chance to participate in a competition.

The two lucky winners were Gerald Zammit who is now a proud owner of a Virta Panton Chair and James Bonello who won an HTC ONE S Smartphone courtesy of Melita.

Debbie Pavia, Operations and Business Development Manager at Business Leaders Malta was pleased with the turnout and positive feedback gathered from the attendees.

Work is already underway for BLM Insights, which is also a new concept for the BLM brand, where regular interactive workshops are being organised.

We look forward to attending next year’s conference and are curious to find out what the theme will be.

fast | easy | saves you money www.goldengate.com.mt

Business Leaders Malta Awards winners 2013 Communication & Team Cohesiveness Smart Technologies Ltd. Performance Driven Nectar Group of Companies Corporate Culture Smart Technologies Ltd. Training & Development Cardinal Health Malta Ltd. Employee Well-Being Smart Technologies Ltd. Reward and Recognition Microsoft Malta Ltd. Leadership Effectiveness Smart Technologies Ltd. Overall Winner (20 - 99 employees) Nectar Group of Companies Overall Winner (100 - 299 employees) Cardinal Health Malta Ltd. Overall Winner (300 + employees) Actavis Malta Ltd.

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Money / Issue 17 - 31

Market Report

The big apple takes a bite Apple’s share price has made whopping gains, but its stock value has plummeted. What is shaking the tree, ask Chris Grech and Calvin Bartolo.

L

ast year, Apple Inc. surpassed ExxonMobil Corporation to become the world’s largest company by market capitalisation.

Its share price increased from $400 in January 2012 to $700 in September 2012, a whopping gain of 75% over nine months. The stock’s value however plummeted from its peak in September to $500 in December, reducing the overall gain for 2012 to 25%. This sudden drop attracted our attention – what could be the possible causes of this drop?

Many cited the anticipation of higher US tax rates on capital gains as the primary reason that started the sell-off last September. Those who argued on this basis claimed that the gain registered by Apple during 2012 was much larger than that of other stocks, and so it follows that the selling pressures should likewise be large. This argument is not watertight because an investor who does not want to part from this stock could still have been tax efficient by selling the stock and buying it again soon after.

32 - Money / Issue 17

With hindsight we confirm that the fiscal issues were not the cause of the sell-off because the share price did not recover between January 1, 2013 and the time of writing. Conversely, its direction continued moving in negative territory.

Therefore, the decline in interest in Apple must be linked to its outlook.

Indeed Apple’s future is grey – this is due to Samsung’s increased presence but also due to the lack of innovation inherent in the products that Apple recently launched. In fact, the iPad mini and the iPhone 5 seem to have been merely recycled from older models. Apple seems to have been more focused on fending off competition by suing Samsung on a number of patent issues rather than focusing on innovation.

In addition, key people are not with the company any longer. The company fell apart when Steve Jobs was asked to leave by Apple’s board of directors in 1985 – will the same happen again? Other key innovators have left Apple too. Scott Forstall, a software engineer with 166

pending patent applications (more than anyone else at Apple) and the architect of the iOS resigned recently. This makes him available to Apple’s competitors – and that cannot be good for Apple. The market sentiment seems to express the worry that Apple may become the next Research In Motion (best known for the Blackberry smartphone).

Naturally Apple enthusiasts shrug off these issues. They claim that Android and Samsung are actually filling a market which Apple itself engineered in the first place, that the demand for Apple products is still strong (Apple’s highend PCs and software are considered industry standard in the film, design and music industries) and that Apple’s products enjoy an exceptional brand loyalty. Above all, Apple’s strength lies in its design – Apple products are cool and they will continue to be in high demand until their aesthetics stop standing out from the crowd.

But how financially healthy is Apple and what challenges does the future hold?

Chris Grech and Calvin Bartolo are co-founders of blackdigits.com.mt, a financial website which allows users to analyse the financial statements of local listed companies. Data is available for free. The aim of blackdigits. com.mt is to create a community-based website where users may share their views and knowledge on companies listed on the local market.

Apple accumulated a stockpile of cash to the tune of $121 billion, which as Apple CEO Tim Cook himself said in an interview with Bloomberg Business Weekly, is invested in “the most conservative instruments known to man”. This puts the company in a solid position not only from a balance sheet point of view but it also reassures its shareholders that the company has enough resources to finance future growth and research.

Profitability levels were not adversely affected by increased competition – on the contrary, Apple performed even better financially.

Apple’s financial position is strong.

It does not have long-term borrowings on its balance sheet and its business generates tremendous cash flows, estimated at $40 billion annually. Its gross margin and return on equity increased almost every year during the last 10 years. Strong growth in these ratios was also registered over the last four years, shrugging off the effects of the financial crisis. What is more important is that profitability levels were not adversely affected by increased competition – on the contrary, Apple performed even better financially.

The finances of the company are solid so the next step is analysing whether the stock is expensive. The share price is selling at a price/earnings ratio of around 11.5 at the time of writing, meaning that an investor pays $11.5 for every $1 that Apple is currently earning. To put this in perspective, buying property as a rental investment typically involves paying €20 for every €1 of rent the property yields (or in other words earns a 5% return). Stocks that hold huge potential have very high price/earnings ratios whereas companies that are not positioned to grow sell at price/earnings ratios close to the range that Apple is currently trading.

This is a key point that we believe many people overlook. The price/earnings ratio of Apple is already fair, possibly factoring into consideration the challenges mentioned above. In principle, investors who do not buy Apple stock because they worry about its future would be double counting the Apple’s risk profile since its risks emanating from increased competition or reduced innovation arguably are factored in already.

Apple is not only a cash cow but may also hold potential for growth. After all, Apple’s strength lies in taking an existing product and makes it desirable.

Apple did not create the mp3 player, the smartphone or the tablet but it definitely

transformed the products available on the market and made them both desirable and must-have.

Looking forward, according to market intelligence, the television set (not the Apple TV) is in Apple’s pipeline. It will not be surprising if Apple transforms a low-margin product (and dominated

by Apple’s arch-rival Samsung) into a must-have revolutionary product. The demise of Steve Jobs is the factor that

raises doubts on whether this trend can be sustained. However, is it possible that the largest company in the world depended on one man’s work alone? Apple has a strong management team (most recruited

by Jobs himself) and it is hoped that they are able to carry on Jobs’s ideology.

Probably, the market overreacted to the challenge that Apple is facing but on the other hand, the vicissitudes of the technology industry makes this sector a tricky one – a company typically either does very well or not well at all (think of Blackberry again). At the current price/ earnings ratio, the acquisition of Apple stock makes a good addition to one’s portfolio, but investors should keep the afore-mentioned opposing forces clearly in mind and mitigate their risk position accordingly by, for example, but not only, ensuring they hold a well-diversified investment portfolio.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely of the authors and do not reflect the views of the users of the website, its affiliates or of any financial institution. This article is published solely for informational purposes and is not to be construed as a personal recommendation, a solicitation or an offer to buy or sell any securities or related financial instruments.

Stock markets are volatile and subject to fluctuations which cannot be reasonably foreseen. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. The authors do not accept any liability for any loss or damage arising out of the use of all or any part thereof and no representation or warranty is provided in respect of the reliability of the information contained in this report.

Money / Issue 17 - 33

Promo

To their credit

B

anks have been issuing letters of credit since early Egypt, according to some researchers, but the nature of trade finance has come a long way since then. In fact, it has come a long way just over the past 20 years. Ask Carmel Borg, the new head of Bank of Valletta’s Trade Finance Centre, whose appointment coincided with the inauguration of the Bank’s new premises for this Department.

“In 1993, when the Centre was set up to centralise the business and build up expertise, we were the only Maltese bank doing trade finance. Admittedly most transactions were plain vanilla deals. Lead times for orders tended to be much longer whereas nowadays it is just weeks and with the principle of just in time production, hours can make a difference. Furthermore, the local economy has evolved and we are now involved in more diverse and complex transactions where finalising a trade deal could take days of negotiation,” he said.

the importance of knowing the customer,” Mr Borg explained.

“International trade is governed by universallyaccepted rules but that is not enough. To be successful you need to appreciate cultural issues and perceptions and the characteristics of particular markets, and the political, economic and environmental issues in which such trade takes place.

You also need to develop an instinct that warns you of

In fact, one of the most important functions of the Trade Finance Department is an advisory one, as its long experience and vast expertise enable it to guide its clients through the maze of risks that International Trade inevitably involves. The substantial growth of the business and the focus on this advisory role meant that the Department needed premises to enable it to offer these services in a more welcoming, professional and discreet environment. The premises also include a training room where staff update themselves with the latest developments and discuss matters of interest found in specialist publications.

Trade Finance has always been an integral part of the services offered by the Bank but it has been given more importance as demand evolved. Not only are there more Maltese brokering international trade deals, but there are also many international companies who avail themselves of BOV’s services, thanks in no small part to the success of the Bank’s International Corporate Centre.

“This business carries with it a high element of risk so we are very prudent about whom we do business with, the markets we operate in and the commodities we handle. As a minimum, the client must maintain an account relationship with us – after all, the Bank believes very strongly in relationship banking and

34 - Money / Issue 17

risk when a transaction looks good on paper, but is not.

“It is this outlook that saw the Bank emerge unscathed during the Libya crisis notwithstanding that we continued to honour our commitments. Now that the conflict is over and our clients are anxious to pursue investment opportunities there, the Bank, through

its Representative Office in Tripoli, is working closely with the authorities and financial institutions in Libya and we have continued where we left off.

“Perhaps the Department’s strongest selling point is the personal approach and the flexibility that is possible when you are a small team in an independent bank. This personal approach spreads to all the persons involved in the chain and has been instrumental in concluding deals that otherwise would have been lost, were it not for our intervention. It is no wonder that the department is thriving, with more foreign suppliers also transferring their accounts to the Bank as they appreciate this attention.

“It is a very exciting time for the department as there are plenty of challenges and opportunities out there.

We tend to be a cautious institution, as we appreciate the limitations of our balance sheet, but that has not stopped us from facilitating multimillion Euro deals in countries that I never would have dreamt of doing business with a decade ago. And that includes Egypt,” he said.

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Country Profile

All that glitters is the Gold Coast Ghana has become a rare African success story. But will it sustain its growth, asks Money.

T

hink of Africa and an army of stereotypes will make a mental march: the bloated children swatting at flies; the incredible beauty of the landscape watered with civil unrest and blood; the unlimited resources wasted by evil dictators; the hunger, pain and poverty.

Of course, such stereotypes are rooted in the post-colonial history of the continent – most African nations have struggled to go from being the white man’s burden (and treasure chest) to independence.

And yet, there are rare stories of success. South Africa has now, after years of pain, gained a strong

36 - Money / Issue 17

foothold. Botswana has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and Namibia has a stable parliamentary democracy.

In the past few years, another African country has been showered with praise for its growth: Ghana.

United States President Barack Obama called Ghana a “good news story” while the World Bank has lauded the country for making a significant and successful effort in building capacity.

Such praise is wholly deserved. Employment and economic growth have risen while hunger has been constantly falling.

Between 1991 and 2006, the proportion of the population

living in poverty fell from 51.7 per cent to 28.5 per cent.

Ghana also has twice the per capita output of the poorer countries in West Africa.

This performance has put Ghana on track to become the first African country to achieve the UN millennium development goal of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

Ghana was originally formed from the merger of the Gold Coast, a former British colony, and the Togoland trust territory. In 1957, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan country in colonial African to gain independence.

Like most African countries, Ghana is well endowed with natural

resources. Gold, timber, diamond and bauxite are the country’s main exports and major sources of foreign exchange.

However, the backbone of Ghana’s economy is agriculture, which accounts for 50 per cent of GDP and employs 85 per cent of the work force. In fact, if there’s a secret behind Ghana’s economic performance, it’s agriculture, which has helped the West African country launch a, to date, successful attack on hunger and poverty.

First of all, government poured resources into farming – it supported farmers to help them be more productive, provided technical advice, improved planting techniques

and ensured that seedlings and fertiliser got to the farmers. Government also introduced much needed reforms and new fiscal policies in the cocoa industry.

Rising yields in staple crops such as sweet potatoes, yams and cassava boosted food production – this increased incomes in the rural areas and made food more affordable. Ghana’s cassava production soared from 3.3 million metric tonnes grown on 446,000 hectares in 1989 to 9.7 million tonnes on 800,000 hectares in just 10 years. This, in turn, has spurred economic development in other areas. This has been a sustained effort – in fact, Ghana now commits nearly 10 per cent of its budget to improving agriculture.

The backdrop to this economic growth is a stable government. Last July, the death of President John Atta Mills led to an outpouring of grief – Mills was loved by the people because, following 26 years of military rule, he had ushered in an era of development and democracy. During his presidency, the intellectual environment had also become richer, thanks to more than 100 private radio stations and 20 privately owned newspapers encouraging healthy debates.

“This performance has put Ghana on track to become the first African country to achieve the UN millennium development goal of halving extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.”

Mills’s death sparked doubts about whether a new president would be able to sustain two decades of progress. However, Ghana handled the transition well – former vice-president John Dramani Mahama was swiftly sworn in and political stability maintained.

Of course, there is still much to be done. First is Ghana’s untapped potential.

In agriculture, only about half of Ghana’s land suitable for agriculture is under cultivation. Moreover, irrigation is rare and technology underused. Farmers also complain that some markets haven’t been sufficiently developed to absorb their production – this leads to surplus production which, in turn, drives down prices.

Increased prosperity has also been a double-edged sword for Ghana. Wealth has triggered a population boom which is placing a huge burden on health and education services. Also, access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation is not widespread and in the north especially, food insecurity and a weak infrastructure persist.

However, the biggest issue that Ghana is facing is oil. Of course, the discovery of oil is good news for the West African country – two and a half years after discovering offshore reserves, production began on the Jubilee oilfield. It is estimated that in the near future, the oil industry will be worth $1bn a year.

However, while oil brings new opportunities, it has also spelled the death sentence for many African countries. The discovery of oil in Chad and Nigeria, for instance, has led to corruption, wasteful spending and inflation.

To avoid this pitfall, Ghana should maintain its momentum while ensuring a transparent and accountable use of its oil reserves. It is only in this way that Ghana can remain a leading example in Africa.

Ghana in numbers 6.7M In just half a century, Ghana’s population has grown from 6.7 million to 24 million.

25%

Ghana’s agricultural sector has grown by an average of about five per cent per year during the past 25 years.

75%

Ghana cut hunger levels by 75 per cent between 1990 and 2004.

52

Ghana is inhabited by 52 ethnic groups.

$1.25 Despite economic growth, 27 per cent of Ghana’s population live on less than $1.25 a day.

3

The Ghana Stock Exchange is the third largest in Africa after the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Money / Issue 17 - 37

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Design

A great day at the office Productivity, leisure and good communication – all qualities of Vitra workspaces, says Emma Fenech Cefai, sales manager at Dex. Photos by Marc Casolani.

A

t the Dex showroom in Qormi, colleagues are discussing plans over their desks, setting up a board table, greeting clients and taking phone calls.

It’s busy yet quiet. Everything looks so seamlessly efficient – it’s a perfect showcase of Vitra workspaces.

“A couple of years ago I met Vitra representatives at a fair and I was completely fascinated by their citizenoffice concept,” says Emma Fenech Cefai, sales manager at Dex, a specialised outlet of the Vivendo Group which is focused on offering workspaces for office environments.

“Some time later, the whole team visited the Vitra campus in Switzerland.

It was an amazing experience and we could see first-hand how this creative company creates happy, productive workspaces.

“To partner with Vitra, it was necessary to adopt their concept at our offices – it’s an excellent idea because we could try out Vitra’s solutions while showcasing them to our clients.”

The Dex showroom in Qormi has now been transformed into a Vitra workspace.

“Vitra workspaces are healthy, intelligent, inspiring and durable.

The whole concept is similar to an open office, yet there is more space for communication and leisure. The partitions between desks, for instance, guarantee privacy yet they also allow eye contact.

“The Dex showroom and offices are a perfect example of how a Vitra workspace functions. Before, for instance, my office was situated on the first floor and therefore, I had to rely on second-hand feedback from my colleagues on the ground floor.

Nowadays, I share the workspace with my colleagues and together we generate continuous knowledge sharing. I’m also more aware of our clients’ needs and I can listen to my team and help them.

After all, the manager in a modern office is there to manage people not paper.

“The whole process of offering a workspace solution is based on dialogue.

We first discuss with our clients their type of business and their needs. At this stage, we ask a lot of questions about the function of the office. Also, we discuss solutions rather than the furniture itself.

Then, after various consultations, we propose a working solution.”

This working solution addresses all aspects, from furniture and technology to acoustics and design. All these aspects and ideas are brought together at planning stage in one, aesthetically pleasing package. And no detail is disregarded – Dex, for instance, even employs a chair technician.

“Good acoustics is a very important element in a workspace because it allows colleagues to communicate, without being a nuisance to others,” Emma says.

“The materials we use isolate sound.

Also, ceilings are designed in a way that they deflect resonance, thus breaking

the sound waves. This creates a muted atmosphere.

“We also offer effective cable management which keeps workspaces clean and flexible. Moreover, we use class zero materials which are non combustible and non toxic.”

Another quality of Vitra workspaces is their flexibility.

“Business requirements change all the time and so do our workspaces,” says Emma. “Vitra workspaces evolve and can be changed, without any damage, according to requirements.”

The advantage of being a member of the Vivendo Group is that Dex can offer clients a 360-degree solution.

“We have other partners – chosen for the quality of their products as well as their philosophy – like Rockfon for acoustics and Teknofloor for flooring. This enables us to offer a complete solution, including product management. We can also partner up with our clients’ service providers.”

Other advantages of being a member of the Vivendo Group is a caring after-sales service and an efficient lead time.

“Our relationship with Vitra relies on constant communication and feedback.

We also spend one week a year at Vitra, where we get first-hand experience from Vitra and from other Vitra agents around the world. It’s all based on good communication.”

Money / Issue 17 - 39

Design

“Furniture doesn’t have to be new and perfect – nature itself is beautifully imperfect.”

1

Living in a green house

By re-using and up-cycling your interiors, you can live in a responsible home, says Violet Kulewska. Photos by Glorianne Cassar.

R

ecently, I was standing outside a hotel in Valletta, watching workers clearing up its interior and stacking furniture out on the pavement. A couple of retro 1950s wood and metal office chairs caught my eye so I decided to ask the owner if I could keep them. We agreed that I would collect them first thing the following morning.

Done deal.

The following morning I arrived early to collect the chairs, only to find a new worker who, after I had explained my arrangement with the owner, angrily replied that he had taken them to the warehouse and would be throwing them away later.

Needless to say, I was very disappointed and upset that he actually preferred to throw the chairs away than sell them and give them a new home.

Goes to show how some people still think

40 - Money / Issue 17

that ‘old’ is bad and don’t realise the consequences of throwing away items which are still functional.

“Sustainability” is one of the most popular buzzwords right now. The interior design approach has been defined as the process of creative problem solving.

It is a process which integrates academic knowledge with imagination. Designers work through the process to achieve functional quality of interior space and to provide the right aesthetics.

Cost is another valuable aspect.

Environmental issues are important in design development for the selection and specification of interior materials and products. It is not always possible to be fully sustainable and green, but designers can and do make a significant impact on our planet through the way we design and what materials we specify. Thankfully, nowadays there is a new generation of

designers who design items that are functional, useful and designed to last.

I love collecting old objects – by buying things that would otherwise be thrown away, we can do our bit to help the environment while decorating our homes in a unique way. For instance, in Malta I have seen what otherwise would have been useless vintage glass shades reassembled to make beautiful hanging lamps. I have also met individuals who collect all sorts of things – from old picture frames and furniture to unusual things – which they then re-use for film sets or other installations.

Re-using can also involve the process of converting what people might consider waste materials into new products of better quality or for better environmental value. It simply means using objects or materials again, enabling continual benefits prior to recycling.

Violet Kulewska studied Interior Architectural Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Wroclaw and London Metropolitan University. She collaborated with and worked for several design and architecture practices, both in London (Robin Monotti Architects) and Malta (Chris Briffa Architects and Forward-Architects). Now based in Malta, she designs under the name VK interiors & furniture. www.violetkulewska.com

As a designer, I encourage my clients to select interior materials and products more carefully. Furniture items can be created from sustainable materials that are natural and self-replenishing and the manufacturing processes for these items has little environmental impact.

Antique or vintage furniture is also an original investment. An old vintage sofa or armchair can be reupholstered with new fabric and it will add character and charm to any interior space. You can also replace synthetic fabrics with natural and organic material such as cotton, wool or hemp.

Furniture doesn’t have to be new and perfect – nature itself is beautifully imperfect. The flooring is an important aspect of an interior’s design that we come in contact with everyday. I would like to encourage re-using the old Maltese tiles rather than getting rid of them. You can also use reclaimed wood, which is a great sustainable material and also one of the few products that is 100 per cent recycled.

Sustainable wall finishes include plaster finishes and paints that are also friendly to the environment.

These finishes and textures can make quite a statement or provide a subtle background. Using the right lighting can also have a huge impact on a project.

Malta has the cheapest light source of all, which is daylight. A skylight makes the space seem much larger and helps to bring the outdoors in. Not to mention the health benefits sunlight gives us.

2

It is our responsibility to develop eco-friendly methods of construction.

Also, we should invest more thought in the materials that we use and the technologies that we include within our homes. It is only thus that we can create a more sustainable world for us and for future generations.

1, 3: A low budget project where Violet Kulewska used old vintage furniture and designed office desks made of chipboard (waste wood).

3

4

2, 4: Tom van Malderen creates beautiful handing lamps by re-using vintage glass shades.

Money / Issue 17 - 41

THE SIMPLE LIFE Photography: Kris Micallef www.krismicallef.com Stylist: Carina Camilleri Models at models.com.mt

Small town boy Photography: Kris Micallef Creative director: Luke Engerer Model: Danny

Noel wears Mangano top and pants, €54.50 each / Tommy Hilfiger jacket, €329 Opposite: Raoul wears Tom Tailor shirt, €39.95 / Mexx t-shirt and jacket, €27.95, €89.95 / G-star pants, €112

Vanja wears Piazza Italia shirt, €9.99, trousers, €18.99 and jacket, €46.99 / Tom Tailor cap, €11.99 Opposite: Peter wears Tommy Hilfiger shirt, €99.90, trousers, €109 / Celio v-neck, €29.99 / Piazza Italia belt, €8.99

Aidan wears Tom Tailor trousers, €49.95 / Celio shirt, €29.99 / Esprit EDC v-neck, €39.95

Davide wears Tom Tailor jacket, €69.95 / Esprit shirt, €59.95 and jeans, €39.95 / Carpisa bag, €19.90

Gadgets

Get wired Money is on tech behaviour and goes to gadget paradise.

Shoot to thrill

Listen to this

Start your photography adventure with the Canon EOS 600D. With class-leading 18-megapixel resolution, user-friendly design and the entire EOS family of lenses and accessories at your disposal, the EOS 600D captures images that are packed with detail, clarity and exceptional colour reproduction.

Denon Globe Cruiser headphones create peace and order in the middle of travelling chaos. Globe Cruiser headphones have been professionally tuned to provide the purest acoustics while blocking out external noise. The headphones also include wireless, Bluetooth and voice recognition technology.

48 - Money / Issue 17

A time for everything The Raymond Weil Freelancer collection is subtly elegant and urbane. Faithful to the Swiss brand’s watchmaking tradition, the Freelancer collection has evolved with up-to-date lines, dials in timeless shades and increasing refinement. The Freelancer collection is available in three case sizes.

Starry eyed

Game on

The revolutionary Celestron SkyProdigy computerised telescope is perfect for a starry adventure. All you have to do is turn the telescope on – the SkyProdigy will get its bearings and in less than three minutes, it will give you a tour of outer space using its internal database of over 4,000 celestial objects.

This retro gadget allows you to relive the delights of vintage games such as Asteroids, Centipede and Missile Command using a hand-sized control stick. Connect the Atari Arcade to your iPad and download the computer games of your childhood.

Party on Having a ball The Sphero looks like an innocuous ball but in reality it’s a clever robot. You can control the waterproof, polycarbonate ball using your smartphone or tablet – by downloading various apps, you can roll it around, play complex games or have Sphero races.

Using your iPad’s touch interface, the Numark iDJ Pro gives you the best DJ experience. The iDJ Pro puts a dock for iPad at the centre of its dual-platter set-up, seamlessly integrating your tablet’s touchscreen with an expanded layout of physical controls. You can also download tracks and have them pumping in seconds. Also includes professional microphone and external device inputs.

Light up Jake Dyson, son of Sir James Dyson, has come up with the beautiful CSYS lights. Not only do they cast a wonderful light, but CSYS lights do so using just 8.8 watts of LEDs. The lights have a 160,000-hour minimum life and come with a 37-year guarantee against a bulb needing replacement.

Money / Issue 17 - 49

50 - Money / Issue 17

News

Money’s picks

An excellent reputation

Full circle

credit control

Choosing the right policy for your needs is very important – even more important is choosing which insurance company to buy it from.

So how do you choose? The true quality of an insurance company comes out when handling claims, so its reputation in this area is of utmost importance.

Toyota’s approach to vehicle design and production is driven by its desire to reduce its impact on the environment.

The Institute of Financial Services-Malta and Creditinfo are jointly offering a course on developing and improving credit policy. Entitled ‘Developing an Effective Credit Control Unit,’ the course has been designed to encapsulate the risk levels involved in providing credit and to establish a better understanding of how this can be mitigated.

GasanMamo has an excellent reputation in handling your claims. In today’s busy life, what you need is an insurance company that understands your problem and goes out of its way to help you resolve it as quickly as possible.

This is what GasanMamo believes in. GasanMamo Insurance, Msida Road, Gzira GZR 1405, Malta. Tel: 2134 5123. www.gasanmamo.com

To reduce the impact of materials production, Toyota has invented a recyclable plastic called Toyota Super Olefin Polymer. Carbonneutral ecological plastic is another progressive idea that reduces CO2 output. Toyota designers also focus on reducing weight and improving aerodynamics to improve fuel consumption.

The Eco-driving indicator fitted to many Toyota models will help you hone your eco-driving skills, while a Hybrid System Indicator supports greater efficiency with Toyota’s full hybrid technology.

IFS members registered for the CPD may claim learning credits (Category 5) for attending this course. Malta Institute of Accountants members attending all sessions will be accredited with 12 hours of structured CPE. For more details call on 2124 0335 or e-mail info@ifsmalta.org.

Style online Bortex has just launched its new website – www.bortexgroup.com.

The revamped website contains what users have become used to plus a host of additional and easily accessible information.

The website introduces new features that facilitate better communication. These are enhanced by high quality images and information on the latest collections and trends. The website also includes a seasonal collection gallery, a wedding and graduation hire gallery, a corporate wear section and an e-commerce platform.

Metropolises of the world The BOSS menswear collection stands for clean looks with a strong focus on fine fabrics and intelligent details.

It offers elegant modern classics for business, leisure and special events, in premium quality and precision fits.

Inspired by the man who is at home in the world’s cosmopolitan centres, the Spring 2013 collection is headlined ‘Metropolises of the World.’ The season’s key look is a medium blue, two-button suit worn with a slim-cut shirt rounded out by eye-catching accessories. The more casual sportswear segment is dominated by light cotton chinos and summer knits. Exclusive lace-ups in supple calfskin play a starring role and matching weekend bags complete the look.

Truly anti-magnetic Omega has announced the creation of a watch that is resistant to magnetic fields greater than 1.5 tesla (15,000 gauss), far exceeding the levels of magnetic resistance achieved by any previous watch and solving a problem that has challenged watchmakers for centuries.

The technology developed by the team led to the first prototype of the movement, which has been fitted in an Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra. Unlike other efforts to combat the effects of magnetism, the Omega movement does not rely on a protective container inside the watchcase but on the use of selected non-ferrous materials in the movement itself.

Maltese business delegation in China Some 25 Maltese companies joined companies in Shanghai and Hong Kong for a business forum organised by Malta Enterprise with the support of HSBC Bank Malta.

In Shanghai more than 65 Chinese companies participated in the forum which focused on the advantages Malta offers to Chinese companies.Presentations were delivered by Malta Enterprise Chief Officer for Trade, Investment and Enterprise Support Joe Schembri, HSBC Bank Malta’s Head of Commercial Banking Michel Cordina, and the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry’s representative Anton Borg.

A series of one-to-one meetings were held between Maltese and Chinese delegates. A similar programme was also carried out in Hong Kong.

For more information about HSBC’s commercial activities, products and services, contact your Relationship Manager or call Business Banking Centre on 2380 8000. You can also visit www.hsbc.com.mt/commercialbanking or any HSBC branch in Malta and Gozo.

Money / Issue 17 - 51

Travel

The Spanish conquest

1

Is it possible to fly the approximation of business class with a low-cost airline?

Mona Farrugia travels to Madrid to find out.

2

3

4

1. Start your day with a plate of churros / 2. Fresh oysters at the Mercado de San Miguel / 3. The cerveceria opposite Botin

R

egardless of what anybody says, nobody actually likes flying low-cost. If it were up to each individual, and that individual’s means were, say, akin to Roman Abramovich’s, then it would be private aircraft, beautiful stewardesses and foot massages all the way. If forced into commercial flying, then first class it would be.

Flights to Spain are not serviced by the legacy carrier so nobody even operates a business class cabin. I was not going to concede to Ryanair even if it were the last airline flying. So Vueling it would be. How low-cost could their business class be? Or rather, how business class can a lowcost airline ever aspire to be?

One of the joys of legacy airlines is the clarity of carriage, the lack of panic for us, the flyers, about detail. When I get on an Air Malta plane, my Diamond and even regular Flypass card makes check-in easier and so much more human – although I do recall an incident where check-in staff were happy

52 - Money / Issue 17

that I had been demoted from Diamond to regular and refused lounge access in gleeful tones (instead of trying to get me back on their highest tier by selling me more seats).

Sadly, at Malta International Airport, even if we had bought what Vueling call duo seats – 1D and 1F (like in business class, nobody sits on 1E), no special treatment was forthcoming. The one good thing – and this may have been because we were at MIA not another airport – was that we avoided the ignominy of having our wheelies stuffed into that metal frame.

There was no lounge pass, obviously. There was, though, the gate process. In 20 minutes, a planeload streamed in and another, us included, streamed out. The duo seat allowed for reserved luggage space. This made me think that everybody else had to fight for their overhead centimetres.

In regular business class, the staff smile more, are more accommodating and forgiving, and close an eye when your

headphones are still on for takeoff. Here there was no chance of that: there is no curtain and no real separation. On the way out on a 10.30pm flight (does one need to add how ridiculously timed low-cost flights are?), with a 30-minute delay, staff were surly and curt. With everybody.

The landing was horrendous.

The plane seemed to take a shortcut and do the entire process in 20 minutes. Was that the runway, the weather or just the oft-quoted (by pilots) dictum that since most fuel is used on take-off and landing, the shorter this is, the more the airline saves?

On the way in from Madrid, at a more decent 7.30pm, onboard crew were pleasant and the landing excellent, maybe owing to the length of our runway.

Cabin staff did not let those who had not paid for the more expensive seats occupy them, or use the row of overhead compartments above us.

As a duo seat customer, the booking says you’ll be offered a snack or a drink. This, on an

almost three-hour flight, was a packet of almonds and a small bottle of water. Thankfully, when I asked for a cup of tea, nobody charged extra. On the way back from Barajas, I bought some outstanding jamon, a six-pack of semi-decent Rioja, crackers and good cheese. We made our own delicious supper.

Duo customers alight first from the aircraft. Considering that the luggage took so long to come out at Madrid (putting paid to my idea that low-cost airlines did quick everything to save money), this was a useless perk. Both ways, our luggage was the last to come out as, to keep admin costs down, there are no special tags. Moreover, in a complete panic that we would be over the allocated weight, I bought an extra €30 per luggage for 20 kilos (stupidly both going out and coming in) and used almost none of them.

Would I do it again? I doubt it. Next time around I will be a little more canny and a little less panicky. Or maybe I will just choose a destination serviced by a legacy airline.

Food and travel writer Mona Farrugia runs Angelica in Valletta. www.angelicamalta.com

5 4. Old Madrid / 5. La Venencia

not a tourist trap – the food is very good, even though the guitarists circling the tables can be a bit too sweet for some tastes.

Real Madrid How to experience the backstreets of the Spanish capital.

D

espite its vintage age, Madrid feels renewed if a little jaded from a countrywide recession.

Testament to this is the oldest restaurant in the world, Botin.

It has been around since 1725 and is housed in an even older building which dates back to 1590. For hundreds of years, it has been dishing out lunches and dinners every day. It’s on every guidebook, but it’s

Right opposite Botin there is a tiny cerveceria which is packed daily with locals feasting on beer and bits of manchego cheese and sardines via the tapas route. Right up the road, exactly what we should have done with our Valletta market, is the Mercado de San Miguel, a thriving hub of food stands selling everything from coquilles San Jacques and cava to nuts, beer, meat and jams. You can spend entire days in this place, eating and drinking until you need to plonk yourself outside right next to the squabbling, homeless junkies lining the squares for a rest.

Around the corner is Casa Hernanz, a shoe shop which is famous for just one thing: espadrillas. These fabric and jute shoes are made on the premises and every day, the owner and three male

staff open their doors with a seemingly heavy heart to a horde of Japanese, European and Spanish customers waiting outside their door.

You will wait and wait. Then you will do as I did: buy 12 pairs. Then you will return the next day and buy some more. Prices start from a ridiculous €3.

I absolutely adore Delic Café, but that may be because I’m biased. All around the world I look for the local equivalent of Angelica, my tiny café in Archbishop Street, Valletta.

Delic is the Madrid version, albeit bigger, its colours lighter and with tables and chairs outside. Their cakes are stunningly beautiful, coffee is excellent and food is top quality. They are also extremely famous for their margaritas. While I was there, staff were muddling kilos of fresh mint for the day’s supply.

I’m very lucky because my very best friends live in Madrid, and so I get to enjoy the locals’ experience. One night, we went to La Venencia

in Calle Echegaray. It’s a jerez (sherry, if we want to be simplistic) bar, extremely old and with an owner who seems to be as old as the building and who cannot understand a word of English. Point and drink. It won’t kill you. And if it’s not to your taste it would not have cost the earth.

I stayed at the Room Mate Laura, which is very well situated off the Plaza del Sol. As far as a room to crash out for the night was concerned, it was adequate. Nonetheless it confirmed my view that I prefer an old style, chintzy and chic hotel to this modern stuff where beds are too small, breakfast is minimalist, there is no room service and furnishings are modern but will age very quickly.

Madrilenos are very stubborn. Most of them refuse to learn English which means that in many places you will not be able to communicate. It’s not the end of the world though and you will most definitely get by with no issues.

Money / Issue 17 - 53

New York

The Bluesman is a Maltese sound engineer working in New York.

The Bluesman’s blog The Bluesman watches President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.

This is the legacy of those tea party supported candidates, stridently pushed to the forefront during the last round of elections, whose sole purpose was to thwart while waving the flag, as opposed to serve, and thus with no interest in the needs of the people who put them there. Thankfully we look to and hope that Congress 113 will prove to be up to the task.

B

rinksmanship? Surely not! John Boehner huffed and puffed and eventually ran for his Plan B instead on consummating the deal.

Unfortunately for him, it proved as effective at preventing (growth) as its medical counterpart. His GOP comrades decided to withdraw, thereby incurring the frustration of the voting public.

Like Thelma and Louise, President and Speaker were seated in their ‘66 T-Bird racing for the cliff. While Joe and Susie Public were distracted by that pablum passing for entertainment being dished out at Times Square celebrating the end of the year, the Right decided to end the year without an agreement.

What finally was signed into law on January 2 by the Prez is somewhat lacking in satisfaction and closure and needing more attention as the year progresses.

This 112th Congress also managed to hold back some of the promised billions in disaster aid to FEMA for Hurricane Sandy relief, leaving people in the storm-ravaged areas to wait even longer before they can think about rebuilding their homes. In the words of Ezra Klein (Washington Post/Bloomberg/MSNBC) this Congress, “Almost shut down the government... almost breached the debt ceiling... almost went over the fiscal cliff... It’s hard to identify a single significant problem... that was in any way improved by its two years of rule”.

54 - Money / Issue 17

Another cold day (it is winter after all) and another inauguration for President Obama. Him, a little greyer, her, in her Jason Wu and Jimmy Choos. The fashion conscious will be pleased to know that there’s a Miss Wu line at a more affordable price point available from Nordstroms now. Understandably the crowds weren’t as massive as for Obama’s first inauguration – calculations put it at a million, or 55 per cent of the 2009 event. No doubt the numbers would swell again if Hillary Clinton were to win the presidency in 2016. As a second termer, while with an eye on his hands across the aisle beliefs, his speech left no doubt that he intends to vigorously go ahead with what he believes are needed reforms. And the majority says, “And so say all of us.”

In typical say-it-before-you-check-it petty-backbiting cheap-journo form there were those who attempted to build a conspiracy on whether Beyonce lip synched the National Anthem or not.

If she did, then the US Marine Band did too. If the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman thought it wise to not take the risk of their instruments being affected by the cold in 2009, it’s not unreasonable to err on the side of safety, not only with the delicate instrument that is the human larynx but also the brass and woodwinds of the Marine Band performing the Star Spangled Banner at a Presidential Inauguration. It was after all a recording of their own performance and even though, as a musician myself, this would be anathema to me, I would concede the necessity here.

We’ve had two subway deaths (murders really) in a short space of time happening a little too close to home.

The first was at a stop I use quite frequently, 49th St, and the second on a 7 train stop – not a station I use but I do use the 7. Both were cases of persons being pushed into the path of an oncoming train. As most people do, I tend to rationalise – I stay well away from any dishevelled person muttering to themselves, I don’t lean to look down the tunnel to see if a glimmer indicates a train coming without hanging onto to a steel pillar, and I remain aware and alert.

“Him, a little greyer, her, in her Jason Wu and Jimmy Choos.”

A third incident in Philadelphia, however, captured on a security camera and shown on the evening news was quite chilling. It indicated that you can never tell when a potentially life-threatening incident might develop. (A moment of rationalisation here... ‘Well, it was Philly not our City’, of course in actuality only providing a false sense of security.) In this event a fine upstanding member of the human race approached a 23-year-old woman and mother waiting on a bench and possibly asked for a light. He then started punching her and eventually dragged her and threw her on to the tracks after taking her cell phone. Fortunately she was able to climb up and escaped with cuts and bruises. The assailant was later arrested thanks to the distinctive Trump Taj Mahal logo on the jacket he was wearing. Finally Trump trumps.

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