Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1267406
09.07.2020 4 NEWS COVID-19: Government vouchers being sent to households this week GOVERNMENT'S €100 vouchers started being sent by registered post to households across Malta and Gozo as of yesterday. e vouchers, announced in government's economic recov- ery scheme, will be split into five €20 vouchers, and will be arriving via Malta Post. A member of the household will have to sign for the vouch- ers, and will be allowed to col- lect them in the name of all the residing individuals. In a press conference on Wednesday, Economy Minis- ter Silvio Schembri said anyone aged 16 on 18 June or older, as well as anyone holding a Mal- tese residence, will be receiving the vouchers. Some 440,000 residents will be receiving the vouchers, while over 2,000 businesses have signed up to be eligible for the payment. If no one is home when the vouchers are delivered by Mal- ta Post, they will be sent to the nearest post office for collec- tion. e vouchers will be issued against a valid ID card number, and will need to be spent by September 30. Vouchers can be transferred from one individu- al to another, with government not monitoring where and on what they are spent. Split into five, four vouchers will be red and one voucher will be blue. Red vouchers may be used at bars, restaurants, hotels, accommodation businesses, while blue vouchers can be ex- changed at any type of outlet that was ordered to close at the start of the public health emer- gency. While no limit has been set on how much of the vouchers can be spent at once, mone- tary change cannot be given, and the vouchers cannot be ex- changed for money. Business owners will be able to redeem government vouch- ers that customers will pay with using an electronic sys- tem, the economy ministry said last week. When customers pay using the voucher, shops will be able to scan a unique QR code on the individual vouchers. e cash equivalent of the voucher will then be trans- ferred to a credit card account inputted by the business owner upon registration. e app will be made avail- able for all smart phones, and requires an internet connec- tion. When scanning customers' vouchers, owners will also be obliged to scan the VAT receipt issued with the purchase to ensure that all checks and bal- ances are adhered to, Schembri said. THE opportunities that Malta's finan- cial services industry offers in terms of career paths will be the topic of the second in a series of free interactive webinars organised by FinanceMalta to support the sector in these times of post-COVID-19 recovery. e one-hour webinar, to be held on Wednesday 15 July 2020 at 11:00hrs, aims at addressing one of the main chal- lenges that the industry faces, namely skills shortages. In 2019, there were over 12,000 persons working in the financial services industry, representing around 5% of the total employed population. More and more career opportunities are and will be available in this sector, and one of the objectives of the webinar is to provide an overview of the many career paths that one can undertake. e theme is in line with one of Fi- nanceMalta's strategic objectives for 2020, namely to attract young people to the sector, with special emphasis on the notion that the career opportunities in financial services are varied and cover several areas of expertise. Speakers from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA), which has significantly increased its workforce and plans to further strengthen its hu- man resources in the future, as well as the Institute of Financial Services Prac- titioners (IFSP), which has a member- ship of over 400 practitioners in Malta, will address the webinar. Following a welcome address by Fi- nanceMalta's Chairman Rudolph Psaila, Melanie Pace - Senior Manager (People and Culture) at MFSA will talk about the regulator's vision and expected growth in the financial services field. She will be followed by Mirko Rapa - Chairperson of the Education sub-committee of the IFSP, who will give an overview of the job opportunities in the industry. e event will be open for questions from the participants, who can interact via the online platform. is event targets all students who are interested in pursuing a career in the financial services, or who are exploring the opportunities that exist in the Mal- tese market. It is particularly relevant to those University and MCAST students who already have a good basis to work in this field. e webinar will also interest employ- ees who are considering a career move, either within the financial services in- dustry itself, or across industries, as well as persons who are currently on a career break and are considering returning to work in the near future. For more information and to register visit: https://financemalta.org/events/ career-paths-and-opportunities-in-mal- tas-financial-services-industry/ FinanceMalta is the public-private in- itiative set up to promote Malta as an International Financial Centre. Career opportunities in financial services to be discussed in FinanceMalta webinar The speakers of FinanceMalta's upcoming webinar (from left): Rudolph Psaila, Melanie Pace and Mirko Rapa