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Maritime Business
is where the anchor drops
By Angelique Abela -Member of The Malta Chamber and Executive Chairperson, MMH Malta Ltd.
The maritime industry is a dynamic and diverse sector that overlaps into a number of other industries. Just by skimming through the various segments, one realises the vastness of the maritime sector. LOGISTICS
CORPORATE SERVICES Encompassing the Financial, Legal, Insurance, Shipbroking, IT and Consultancy activities. These services already build on a locally strong attractive regulatory platform and are yielding positive results. In fact, Malta is at the forefront as a ship registering nation; Malta being one of the largest ship registers in Europe. This is a success story on which we should keep building as nation.
This activity goes beyond sea transportation activities. It comprises all those activities undertaken in ports, warehousing, storage, stripping/stuffing, distribution centres, testing and quality control and may even be extended to light assembly, packaging and re-packing as well as inter/intra modal transportation facilitation, the management and handling of containerized, bulk and project cargo; ro-ro activities; Stevedores; agencies, public sector employees etc. Ports play a critical role in logistics and as an island nation Malta requires everything from deepwater container ports to small harbours and leisure marinas. Malta’s two main logistical ports are the Ports of Valletta and Marsaxlokk which handle over 90% of the goods that enter or leave the country, as well as being two of the
core European ports handling nearly 74% of goods entering or leaving the Europe via the sea. Creating further opportunities for increased maritime logistics both in volume and added value requires coordination and cooperation between all players in the industry with the primary objective being that of increasing commercial activities. Only then can we start discussing Malta as an efficient logistics hub. There must be focus on improving the infrastructure, expansion of facilities and digital transformation. The shift to the digital era, could have been triggered further by COVID whereby the necessity to work remotely instigated the use technology to improve efficiencies and reduce bureaucratic processes. For example, Freeport has already invested in technologies to semi-automate processes in 2020 and Customs also shifted to a digital platform.
