Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1072992
16 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 20 JANUARY 2019 INTERVIEW Malta's construction boom appears to be fuelling unrest among sections of the population. At the risk of generalising, there is a growing perception that the construction and development sector is constantly taking ever-bigger slices of the pie… eating more into public spaces, riding roughshod over local communities, and so on. As MDA President, how do you respond to these concerns? As you say, it is a perception; and perceptions are sometimes based on untruths. Sometimes I feel that we, as an association, are drawn into certain contro- versies, even when we don't necessarily agree with them… even though, to be fair, we do enjoy the respect and trust of those who know the associa- tion well; those who understand the subject. And that includes some of the media, today. And slowly, slowly – thanks in part to our customer care depart- ment – even the general public is beginning to come to us, after losing hope that the authorities will listen to them. We've had visits by ordinary citizens who suffer from inconveniences re- lated to construction, but who found no help from the authori- ties. They come to us instead, and we have always opened our doors to everyone; and we al- ways try to mediate. It also has to be said that very often, the developer would not be aware of all the details of what's going on in a construction site. Some- times it's the people working on site who wouldn't be observing the rules. So when we draw the developer's attention to existing problems, what normally hap- pens is that the developer takes the bull by the horns, and han- dles the issues there and then… Let's talk about some of those issues: health and safety, for instance. Recently, there was the shocking case of a construction worker who fell to his death in Sliema… prompting calls for a revision of OHSA procedures. Is the MDA involved in any discussion to that effect? And do you feel the association has made a difference, in the short time it has been in existence? We have tried to make a dif- ference, I can tell you that much. For example, recently we took the initiative of launching an 'MDA Academy', which – together with other companies and stakeholders – is currently looking into ways of achieving a higher level of education and skills. It is not an easy task, I can assure you. And it is unfortu- nate, too, that the media tends not to report positive things. When we do something good, nobody tells us, 'well done'. But if there's something negative, they always pounce on it… Could you give a few examples of 'good things' the MDA has done? Yes… and thanks for asking. Recently, there was a case of a someone's rooftop (kontrabejt) being damaged by an adjacent construction project, resulting in the house being flooded. We intervened; we went on site; we talked to the developer; we ap- pointed an independent archi- tect… all to help this particular person, who was an elderly lady. Because let's face it: everyone has a heart. We felt for her; be- cause other people might have the strength and energy to go running around all the authori- ties, and to hire lawyers, and so on. Not everyone has that luxury. In the end we solved the problem, and the lady in ques- tion was very grateful. We even got 'thank you' emails from her relatives and friends, who ap- preciated our efforts… even though none of this was techni- cally our responsibility. It's a good story; but to return the original question, the perception is not just about individual developers who break the rules; it is also about the rules themselves. One recent example concerns the valuation of public land in St George's Bay, for a tourism project by the Corinthia Group. The land was valued at 122 million euro, yet transferred for only 52 million euro. Wouldn't you agree that anyone willing to invest in large construction projects, always has a red carpet rolled out for them? I'd rather not comment specifi- cally about the Corinthia project for now, but what I can say is this: with regard to public land, and public property, we issued a strongly-worded statement, and we have nothing to add to that statement right now... Not all our readers will have seen the statement. What did it say, in a nutshell? Basically, we believe that the transfer public land – with- out going into the merits of for which project, or for what purpose – should always be ne- gotiated with the best interests of the public in mind. To us, this is sacrosanct, for two rea- sons. One, because we believe that future generations should enjoy the heritage we leave be- hind us today. And two, as an association we want to avoid, as much as possible, any dis- tortions to the market... espe- cially distortions which could result in a non-level playing field. But we said this already; and in all fairness, I believe the message got through. We're in discussions with government at the moment, and government is listening. Incidentally, we were also the only organisation which had to courage to make its views heard on this subject… Are you sure about that? I heard quite a few views expressed by environmentalist groups and other civil society NGOs… What I meant was that no other constituted body or trade union, representing stakehold- ers, issued any statement. Bear in mind that 'property' is not an issue that affects only develop- ers. Property is something that everyone buys or rents; other trade unions and constituted bodies know well, from their It is boomtime for the construction and development sector… but are we biting off more than we can chew? SANDRO CHETCUTI, president of the Malta Developers' Association, argues that it is precisely now, when the economic going is good, that we should be preparing for harder times Getting ready for a rainy day Nobody sells their family jewellery when they're well-off, and their businesses are doing well. People only sell their family jewellery as a last resort, when things are going badly Raphael Vassallo Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt