No way we're opening for the next two weeks!

Anyone who has holidayed in continental Europe in August, especially in cities, will know that many bars and restaurants are shut, sporting notices such as ‘Ferie’ or ‘in Vacanza’ in Italy, for example. Just as you, the unsuspecting tourist arrives, those who should be making a buck out of you at this peak summer holiday time of year have chosen to go on holiday too. So what happens in August in Malta, holiday islands in sun?

What to Expect in the August Shutdown
The next two weeks are Malta’s peak, local summer holiday time of year. If the father of the family hasn’t taken a break yet, he will now be shipping himself and family somewhere like a holiday flat or second home in Gozo or up North to St Paul’s Bay, abroad, or if very lucky, aboard a motor cruiser island hopping to Sicily. Mid August often sees a change in the weather to humid, sweaty, still grey days that promise rain. We can see the odd freak flash flood storm as a taste of autumn rains to come.

The summer recess in Malta moves in mysterious ways. We might not have ‘Chiuso per Ferie’ on our windows as our Italian neighbours do, but the habitual two weeks’ shutdown does leave its mark. Here’s how:

The good news
Everything a tourist needs stays open. Local businesses know that this is the time of year to make almost all their profits if they rely on tourist bucks from sun, sea and sand seeking visitors. None of the habits of Italian city restaurateurs here.

The bad news:
If you’ve moved to Malta recently, you might not know that a lot of firms – even those in service industries such as advertising, and retail businesses such as kitchen and bathroom showrooms, for instance, will be firmly shut for almost two weeks either side of 15 August. So, if you forgot to order that spare part for the washing machine, or need a new tap, like I do, you will have to wait till well after the 15th. Even then, next deliveries after the summer recess can take often until end September or longer to materialise in Malta. You will notice too that supermarket shelves may run out of favourite brands as shipments slow in August.

Although Malta has a dwindling number of manufacturing plants, the tradition of closing up the office still holds even if a firm doesn’t have a production line. The knock-on effect of the shutdown ripples through the economy. We’ve said before that the public sector is hard to reach on the phone after 12.00 from mid June to mid September, but I doubt you’ll get anywhere until September if you try to call a government office now with a query.

The other bad news is that we are all left to battle for the best places on the beach, best restaurant tables and best parking places as the islands teem with holidaymakers, locals and visitors. For some insane reason, we like to take our holidays now, altogether in a pressured two weeks. Malta’s schools don’t go back till around 24 September or later, so we’ve plenty more time to take a break.

The traditional August shutdown, while not strictly needed for most firms these days, is a habit hard to break. Maybe we can blame it on Malta’s most important public holiday, Santa Marija, which falls on the 15 August. The day is in Malta’s psyche; not only because Malta is predominantly Catholic, but also because it marks the end of Malta’s second ‘great siege’ when a small, war-torn convoy of Allied forces’ supply ships limped into Grand Harbour relieving the islands. More on that in our second August holiday article to come.

Share this

Wiring is the easy bit. Getting what goes down the pipes to work is another matter!

Here’s a typical technology woe that could face any micro business or SME in Malta, any day. Our resident IT help-desk buff Steve Hall advises.

Business organisations have always depended on the productivity of their human resources to be profitable. Increasingly today human resources depend on information and communication technologies to be productive. Pulling the plug on an office desk reduces the human resource behind it to a huffing and puffing pyrotechnic spectacle. This phenomenon is of course not exclusive to Maltese companies but Malta does (as always) offer a number of uniqueness’s of its own in this area too.

The overview
JustInTime is a ‘typical’ consulting firm with three staff members. Justin secures new business and oversees the operation of the firm, John provides the actual client services and manages the subcontractors and Julie coordinates office facilities.

What goes wrong
Justin’s email hasn’t been working very well lately and today it isn’t working at all. Julie has also been having difficulty accessing the office files. Julie calls their Internet Service Provider and explains the problem. The ISP concludes that the internet connection is fine and that the problem must be on JustInTime’s office system.

John, who is the most tech savvy of the three takes matters into his own hands and begins to investigate possible causes. Justin who is expecting a rather important email is getting anxious to get the problem sorted and decides to call in a specialist to resolve the issue.

The Malta angle on the IT woe
The short local distances are a blessing in these situations, but even though the specialist team happens to be only a few blocks away, due to contractual commitments with other clients they won’t be available for another five hours. That’s five hours of more lost productivity!

Justin leaves the office to meet with clients, John too leaves the office to catch up with subcontractor progress and Julie remains in the office. After contacting a few friends she finds someone who can be there within the hour. The problem gets solved and productivity levels are restored.

But, the SME’s IT woes just keep on repeating themselves
The following week Justin isn’t able to send an email message, Julia can’t print and John is on an overseas assignment. Julia calls the IT specialist who worked on the system last week but isn’t available this time around. I think you can see where this is going.

And now for a real solution…
Your business depends on technology more each day. Issues crop up for sometimes the oddest of reasons. The challenge is to minimize unscheduled productivity destroying issues. The solution is to routinely check for symptoms that lead to critical issues and remedy them before they unleash their worst.

As with all other things that need doing, there’s two ways to get around this one: You can either do it yourself or you can hire a specialist to do it for you. If this decision was an easy one for you to take, read on.

The ‘Do-it-yourself’ option?
At the outset, if you have the skill-set necessary to identify the symptoms leading to critical issues, then you really should be in the business of charging for it rather than using it to keep your own systems in order. In that case, wouldn’t your time be better spent running the business? Get your technical staff to focus on the technical issues and keep your focus on expanding the business.

Or the ‘outsource to a specialist’ option?
Hiring a specialist firm to keep your systems in order is rapidly becoming standard practice for many organizations of varying sizes. This method of system support referred to as IT Support Outsourcing is being provided by an increasing number of IT Support Service Providers world-wide including Malta.

Service Level Agreements and what you need to know
Engaging an Outsourced IT Support Service Provider is done with a clear objective -to maintain your system in a productive, stable and secure state. By defining Routine Pro-active deliverables (note the capital R and P) in the form of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) the provider will identify and remedy the symptoms that lead to critical issues resulting in unscheduled downtime. It is these unscheduled issues which are the highest cause of productivity loss in business organizations world-wide. The provider will pre-empt possible critical issues and schedule downtime when it least impacts your productivity.

What your SLA should include
The essential deliverables to define in your SLA are:- Issue response time, Data backup verification, End User Support and Checking for System Updates.

Taking your SLA to a higher level to ensure you’ve got what it takes to recover, a Disaster Recovery Plan is indispensable. The DRP is crucial for the larger organizations where a total system wipe-out caused by fire, flood or equipment theft could result in bankruptcy. Less essential but equally important to the smaller organizations, the DRP is updated on a regular basis to ensure that the organization’s system could return to productivity in the shortest possible time.

Selecting a suitable Support Service Provider
How do you know you’re getting the support you’re paying for – and when you need it? Start by asking questions based on this article to get a feel for the providers’ skill-set.

Do not go into any issues specifically relating to your system during your first meeting. Sign a non-disclosure agreement with the prospective provider before disclosing any information about your installation. Try to get a reference from one of their existing clients, but bear in mind that they may not be in a position to divulge this information in order to maintain the confidentiality of their clients. If they do so freely consider how comfortable you would feel being used as a marketing lever without giving consent. Ask if they currently service clients in the same line of business. If you’re an industrial operation for example, this may work to your benefit since they would already be familiar with your business needs. On the other hand if the nature of your business is highly confidential, this may be reason to exclude this prospective provider.

Costs are naturally going to fit into the evaluation equation at some stage but I needn’t jog your memory on how to go about this do I?

Photo: Gege Gatt

For more on how to get your SME’s IT running (all the time, not just some of the time), contact:

Your iTdept 53 Norfolk Street Sliema SLM 2014 Web: www.youritdept.biz Email: info@youritdept.biz Tel: +356 2133 0879 Mob: +356 7932 4522 Skype: youritdept LinkedIn: Your iTdept Facebook: Stephen Hall Twitter: twitter.com/liveITsupport

Share this

There are a lot of steps to climb if you want to import a car into Malta!

This is probably one of the most difficult topics we’ve covered. We can only guide you, provide some personal insights and give you a feeling for what’s involved. We’ll be building on this article, adding to the body of links here. Your insights will be invaluable too.

Basic background
If you are foreign and importing a car into Malta to drive it here beyond the six months deemed permissible as a ‘tourist’ stay, then you will have to pay a vehicle registration tax (though may be eligible for an exemption). If you have a Maltese ID card, you will not be able to drive the car beyond the ferry and home, if that, without having it licensed here. With Maltese ID, you cannot claim to be a tourist visiting.

Vehicle Registration Tax
Malta has among the highest registration taxes for most types of vehicles. Some concessions were made in the 2008 budget, effective from 1 January 2009, that reduced the tax on some small- and medium-sized vehicles but increased them for larger ones. The new system was introduced to encourage us to purchase/import more environmentally-friendly cars so the calculations involve the registered value (RV), car length, carbon dioxide emission volumes and particulate matter volumes (diesel only). Also, under the new system comes a useful exemption – private individuals relocating to Malta will be able to bring in a car they’ve owned for two or more years without having to pay vehicle registration tax here. This exemption is limited to one vehicle per person relocating.

Of key interest to those bringing a car into Malta is the Registration Value (RV). The old system depended on a valuation carried out by the Malta Transport Authority and was a somewhat haphazard affair I’ve heard. But now, to quote the official document: “As of 1st January 2009, the valuation system [is] replaced with a new system which will take into account the depreciation rate (and residual value) of a similar vehicle in Malta, and [is] available online. The system [allows] the user to calculate the tax that would be due if the vehicle were to be registered.”

Vehicle registation tax rates have long been a contentious issue, among both local Maltese and incoming residents – the latter often left facing a nasty tax shock when their six months’ temporary vehicle permit (tourist stay period on the vehicle) is up! It can still be the case, when the RV calculations are done, that you face car registration taxes that are higher than the real value of the car. But, since used car prices hold up in Malta (see photo above for how we keep our cars going!), you might end up selling it here and not losing out too much in the long run, depending on vehicle type and its demand.

If you do end up driving a car with foreign plates for several months here, but within your six-month, temporary permit period (which you should get earlier rather than later in your stay!), you might be pulled over by ADT (Malta Transport Authority) officials doing road-side, spot checks. They can be officious. Know your rights – click here for some advice on how to deal with this.

Procedures
These are quite long and complicated and we’ve some links to help get you through them.
ADT site ‘Registration, Tax & Documentation‘ page gives you a blow by blow list of the procedures and what paperwork you’ll need.
The Malta Chamber for SMEs – the GRTU – has an unofficial guide that makes for an interesting read, and mirrors the official one step by step.
British Expat Forum – Malta has lots of Q&A threads that are worth spending an hour drilling through.

Official Links:
The ADT is the Malta Transport Authority. Its site has downloadable forms and details of the various, possibly useful, tax exemptions such as for overseas’ students or people taking up fixed-term, contract work in Malta who wish to bring their own car in with them for their stay.
http://www.maltatransport.com/en/

http://www.valuation.vehicleregistration.gov.mt/Car.aspx This is a quick, online calculator of the RV you can expect to pay.

Expat Insights
If expats have friends already here, they know the ropes and often opt to hire or buy in situ in Malta. Average hire car rates, for a family car (Ford Focus) on long-term hire, can be around €10/day.

Here’s one car import tale:
“Bringing the car in was fairly easy as you are given a 6 month visitor’s permit. However, the hassle started once this permit ran out. We were being asked to pay massive duty on the car (I think it was about 60% of the total car value) to get Maltese registration or send it back to the UK. Finally, after many meetings and heated discussions my husband ended up meeting both the finance and transport ministers (eds. note: Malta is small, and if your business has clout or you have connections, it’s possible!….) to get them to agree on an exemption for cars of incoming foreign staff at our firm. This meant we only had to pay a comparatively small fee to get it registered. The ADT seem to have clamped down significantly on foreign cars. Our main issues were: (1) duties and (2) the whole minefield of a procedure for getting the car registered.

Would I do it again? Maybe if laws on duty were relaxed – but at the time? No! It was major hassle and meant we couldn’t drive the car for months on end once the permit had expired. One guy I know in the same firm had his car seized and was told: either pay the duty or put the car on the next ferry out of Malta.

Another person’s experience…
We now have some kind of deal on vehicle registration tax because we have had the car more than 2 yrs and therefore fulfilled another criteria. We paid around €300 to get it registered with ADT, BUT they have our UK plates and logbook – which basically means we can’t sell the car here. Unless of course we pay the import duty, which seems to be assessed also, unofficial word has it, on the state of your car; if it looks a bit bashed up, you are more likely to get a lower rate!”

Photo: Gethin Thomas

Share this

Business information in Malta used to be about walking past shop fronts. Now it's more likely found online.

This is a single listing page of the kind of contact details individuals and firms might need when exploring business opportunities or setting up in Malta, or just wanting to forge links with the islands’ business community. This list will serve you well for standard ‘first port of call’ type enquiries about living, working and doing business here in Malta. We’ll be adding to it as we go along so feel free to add comments on what we may have missed out. We’ll be posting more ‘Essential Malta’ listings on specialist areas such as Visas, Personal Tax, Schooling and so on.

Business Associations

Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise & Industry
(encorporates the former ‘Malta Federation of Industry’)
Exchange Buildings
Republic Street
Valletta VLT 1117
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2123 3873
Fax: (+356) 2124 5223
Email: admin@maltachamber.org.mt
Web:www.maltachamber.org.mt

Malta Hotels & Restaurants Association
Nr 2, Gallina Street,
Kappara SGN4111
San Gwann
Malta
Tel: +356 21318133/4
Fax: +356 21336477
Email: mhra@mhra.org.mt
Web: www.mhra.org.mt

Diplomatic & Expat

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Malta
Useful for Visa, Expat and advice to third country (non-EU) nationals
Palazzo Parisio
Merchant Street
Valletta
Malta, VLT 1171
E-mail: info@mfa.gov.mt
Tel: (+356) 2124 2191
Fax: (+356) 2123 6604
(see also government portal).

Employment & Education

Employment & Training Corporation
Head Office
Hal Far BBG 3000
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2165 4940
Fax: (+356) 2220 1811
Email: etc@gov.mt
www.etc.gov.mt

University of Malta
Msida MSD 2080
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2133 3903
Fax: (+356) 2133 6450
Email: comms@edu.com.mt
Web: www.um.edu.mt

Federation of English Language Schools Malta (FELTOM)
c/o The Radisson Blu St. Julian’s
St. George’s Bay
St. Julian’s STJ 3391
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2744 5422
Email: executive@feltom.com
Web: www.feltom.com

See also the Malta government portal.

Finance & Banking

Central Bank of Malta
Pjazza Kastilja,
Valletta, VLT 1060,
Malta
Tel: (00356) 2550 0000
Fax: (00356) 2550 2500
Email: info@centralbankmalta.org
Web: www.centralbankmalta.org

Malta Financial Services Authority
Notabile Road
Attard BKR 3000
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2144 1155
Fax: (+356) 2144 1188
Email:communications@mfsa.com.mt
Web: www.mfsa.com.mt

Finance Malta
A non-profit, public-private initiative, set up as an autonomous Foundation in 2007 aimed at promoting Malta as a financial services centre. It has a secretariat based at Malta Stock Exchange (see below).
Web: www.financemalta.org
Email: info@financemalta.org

Malta Stock Exchange
Garrison Chapel
Castille Place
Valletta VLT 1063
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2124 4051
Fax: (+356) 2569 6316
Email:borza@borzamalta.com.mt
Web: www.borzamalta.com.mt

VAT Department
16, Centre Point Building
Triq ta’ Paris
Birkirkara CMR 02.
Tel: (00356) 21 499330-4/6. Fax: (00356) 21 499365
Web: www.vat.gov.mt
Email: vat@gov.mt

Malta Environment & Planning Authority
St Francis Ravelin
Floriana FRN 1230
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2290 0000
Fax: (+356) 2290 2295
Email:enquiries@mepa.org.mt
Web: www.mepa.org.mt

Media & Communications

Malta Communications Authority
Valletta Waterfront
Pinto Wharf
Valletta FRN 1913
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2133 6840
Fax: (+356) 2133 6846
Email: info@mca.org.mt
Web: www.mca.org.mt

Malta Information Technology Agency
MITA has been entrusted by government with executing the Smart Island Strategy 2010, and with promoting the national ICT policy.
Gattard House
National Road
Blata-l-Bajda HMR 9010
Malta
Tel: (356) 2123 4710
Email: webmaster@mita.gov.mt
Web: www.mita.gov.mt

Tourism

Malta Tourism Authority
Auberge d’Italie
Merchants Street
Valletta VLT 1170
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2291 5000
Fax: (+356) 2291 5893
Email: info@mta.com.mt
Web: www.mta.com.mt

Trade & Inward Investment

Malta Enterprise
Industrial Estate
San Gwann SGN 3000
MALTA
Tel: +356 2542 0000
Fax: +356 2542 3401
Email:info@maltaenterprise.com
Web: www.maltaenterprise.com

Transport & Shipping

Air Malta plc
Head Office
Luqa LQA 4000
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2122 9990
Fax: (+356) 2167 3241
Email: info@airmalta.com.mt
Web: www.airmalta.com

Gozo Channel Company
Head Office
Mgarr Harbour
Mgarr – Gozo (Malta)
Tel: (+356) 2155 6114
Fax: (+356) 2155 6743
Email: admin@gozochannel.com
Web: www.gozochannel.com

Malta International Airport plc
Website has all flight arrivals and departures, schedules and more or less ‘real-time’ updates.
Luqa LQA 4000
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2124 9600
Fax: (+356) 2124 9563
Email: mia@maltaiport.com
Web: www.maltairport.com

Malta Freeport Terminals Ltd
Freeport Centre
Port of Marsaxlokk
Kalafrana BBG 3011
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2165 0200
Fax: (+356) 2225 1900
Email: marketing@maltafreeport.com.mt
Web: www.maltafreeport.com.mt

Malta Maritime Authority
Maritime Trade Centre
Xatt L-Ghassara ta’ l-Gheneb
Marsa MRS 1917
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2122 2203
Fax: (+356) 2125 0365
Email: info@mma.gov.mt
Web: www.mma.gov.mt

Yachting Centre Directorate
Ta’ Xbiex Seafront,
Ta’ Xbiex XBX 1028
Malta
Tel: (356) 2133 2800
Fax: (356) 2133 2141
Email: info@mma.gov.mt

Utilities

Enemalta Corporation
Customer Care Section
Triq Belt il-Hazna
Marsa HMR 01
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2122 4600 Fax: (+356) 2122 6637
Email: customercare@enemalta.com.mt
Web: http://www.enemalta.com.mt

Water Services Corporation
Qormi Road
Luqa LQA 9043
Malta
Tel: (+356) 2244 5566 Fax: (+356) 2244 3900
Email: customercare@wcs.com.mt
Web: www.wsc.com.mt

Miscellaneous

Lotteries and Gaming Authority
La Concorde
Abate Rigord Street
Ta’ Xbiex XBX 1121
Malta
Tel +356 21316590/1/3/4
Email: info@lga.org.mt
Web: www.lga.org.mt

National Statistics Office
Web: www.nso.gov.mt

Share this