The malTa chamber of commerce, enTerprise and indusTry AnnuAL ADMInISTRATIvE REPORT 2015/16
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Policy Committees the new Investing in Skills (formerly known as Training Aid Framework) and Access to Employment – A2E (formerly known as Employment Assistance Programme). It was further reported that as part of its restructuring process, the ETC will be creating a job/skills-matching database for all employees in Malta. This would help employers to search the database prior to calling in any recruits and will be able to head-hunt for specific skills, should the need arise. Benchmarking Session The Human Resources Committee of the Malta Chamber organised another benchmarking session as part of a series of events open for members to benchmark their current HR practices with those of their peers. The event was held at the Exchange Building on Thursday 5th November and was attended by over 30 practitioners and company representatives in the field. The topic of this event was setting performance targets in a company. Catherine Calleja, Chairperson of the HR Committee, welcomed those present and explained the concept behind these benchmarking sessions. She also spoke of the importance of performance targets, both financial and non-financial, the use of tools to monitor and review results and aligning individuals’ and departmental goals with those of the organisation. Ms Calleja proceeded to introduce the keynote speaker, James Ashton, Managing Partner at Multiplex Partners. This session was then followed by a round-robin discussion by all those present on the current performance targets tools and systems being used and how these could be improved.
Internationalisation In 2015, the Internationalisation Desk operated under the guidance of the Internationalisation Committee. Its mission is to help members expand their business abroad. The Desk was established in 2006 with the aim of giving membership added value, and attract further involvement in Chamber business. Furthermore, through the efforts of the Desk, the Chamber has created a vast network of internationalisation contacts with other chambers and trade promotion organisations in various countries that also led to signing of new Memoranda of Understanding. Since its establishment, the role of the Internationalisation Desk has become more and more important. The majority of the work undertaken is reactive in its nature and consists of responding and reacting to inquiries and interests from members, foreign companies and organisations.
are engaged in international activities and calls them up to conduct an interview. The data gathered identifies the countries in which the company does business, as well as the countries in which it would like to do business, and for each of these countries, the activity and sector are identified. The resulting data allows the desk to draw conclusions about the internationalisation activities of Maltese companies at a macro-level, but it also allows the Desk to identify individual companies, when there are contacts or activities which may be of relevance to these companies. The Business Councils These are horizontal committees within the Malta Chamber that focus on promoting business exchanges between Malta and specific countries or regions. The concept was developed as an internal policy by the Internationalisation Committee as a way of creating entities within the Chamber, so that the secretariat can ensure greater coordination, control, continuity and integrity, than can be exercised over with bi-lateral chambers that operate completely independently of the Malta Chamber. These business councils have proven successful in activating members and even generating new membership and they have become catalysts for the creation of events and activities which benefit the participating members as well as the Maltese business community as a whole. Enterprise Europe Network In 2015, the Malta Chamber entered into a consortium with Malta Enterprise, Malta Business Bureau and Malta Council for Science and Technology to manage the local Enterprise Europe Network (EEN). For more information on the subject refer to the section ‘EEN’ in this report. The Internationalisation Desk is also responsible for trade consultation, where it consults with members on issues related to trade policy. This is mainly done by processing the information received from the Economic Policy Division within the Ministry of Finance and disseminating this information via Chamberlink, targeted e-mails and, at times, by contacting the affected companies directly.
Business Councils Scandinavian Business Forum Malta Since its launch, the Scandinavian Business Forum Malta has been successful in organising a number of networking events aimed at Maltese companies that are interested in doing business with Scandinavian countries. Visit www.sbfmalta.com for more information.
The two main thrusts of the work of the Desk stem from three main areas:
Events:
The Internationalisation Survey
• 23 April 2015 Seminar on how to radically improve your business results in only 6 months
This is a database, which bases itself on an ongoing survey. The Internationalisation Desk identifies Malta-based companies which