I (almost) give up

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry has ‘gone into business’ with the government, setting up a company called Trade Malta, in which the government has the majority of shares (51%) while it holds 49%.

I almost give up on this country. In areas where there should be cooperation and collaboration, there is none. And in areas where there should be a clear separation of powers and autonomy, organisations, individuals and authorities jump into bed with each other.

The Malta Chamber of Commerce exists for the specific purpose of safeguarding its members interests. Because of the nature of those interests, the entity against which it is most likely to need to safeguard them is the government. Now, under the Taghna Lkoll stewardship of David Curmi – last seen in public sitting next to the prime minister to back his scheme for selling Maltese passports – the Chamber of Commerce has jumped into bed with the government.

Trade Malta, indeed. If the Chamber of Commerce and Industry feels a pressing need to help its members open up export markets – which is, indeed, one of its purposes – then it should galvanise its members and some of their funds and do so under its own steam, preserving its autonomy.

As for the government, it has Malta Enterprise to promote exports and shouldn’t have a clashing organisation called Trade Malta, unless it has resigned itself to a fact I know through direct experience: that Malta Enterprise CEO Mario Vella is a lazy and useless git who hasn’t worked effectively since leaving the Red Hyper Communist Stasi University of East Berlin at the height of the Cold War.