BusinessToday Previous Editions

5 NEWS 26.11.2020 Government decision to extend COVID measures leaves leisure industry reeling AS part of its corporate social responsi- bility programme, FinanceMalta has do- nated €5,000 towards the purchasing of food supplies for the Foodbank Lifeline Foundation, with the aim of providing a good meal a day to those families and individuals struggling during the COV- ID-19 crisis. is initiative was launched during Fi- nanceMalta's 13th Annual Conference held last month, and represents the con- tribution of the financial services sector towards those families and people in need. e Foodbank Lifeline Foundation helps individuals and families facing a short-term crisis through the provision of emergency food supplies. Food is given out to people who are experiencing a crisis, identified by care professionals and referred to the founda- tion. e pandemic has further aggravat- ed the situation, with a dramatic increase of people seeking the Foundation's help. Rudolph Psaila, chairman of Finance- Malta, said the agency and its members were aware that some people were facing difficult circumstances, struggling to af- ford even essentials and basic needs in- cluding food. "is pandemic has further deteriorat- ed people's lives with devastating conse- quences. We hope that our contribution will help this vulnerable segment to get through these challenging times," he said. "With winter approaching, this is a way for the financial services community to show its sympathy to those in need as the festive season draws near." Mark Portelli, chairman of Foodbank Lifeline Foundation, said: that through generous donations, and the efforts of organisations such as FinanceMalta, Foodbank Lifeline Foundation can con- tinue to provide food to a segment of Maltese society that desperately require help, through no fault of their own. FinanceMalta donates €5,000 to the Foodbank Lifeline Foundation PAUL COCKS THE government's decision to extend restrictive measures imposed by the government on bars, snack bars and clubs has placed the leisure industry under further – possibly fatal – strain, industry sources told BusinessToday. Prime Minister Robert Abela yester- day revealed that measures introduced at the end of October of would be ex- tended beyond 2 December, when they were to be lifted. Abela said that after a meet- ing with the health author- ities it was decided that the forced closure would be extended for "the coming weeks". Bars and social clubs were forced to shut at the end of October as Malta grappled with a growing second wave of COVID-19 infections. Abela said given the amount of new cases and not to put the country's health services under stress, the legal notice ordering the closure will be extended. "It's not worth taking the risk to com- promise the health services when a COVID-19 vaccine is around the cor- ner," Abela said, possibly indicating that the measures would in fact not be lifted until a vaccine is available locally. But industry sources insist such rea- soning is flawed since the number of positive cases recorded daily had risen in recent weeks, despite the restrictions on the leisure industry. In fact, since the latest measures were introduced, Malta has registered an av- erage of 120 new cases of coronavirus per day. Philip Fenech, vice president of the Malta Chamber of SMEs', told Business- Today that the leisure industry had been seemingly singled out to take the brunt of measures imposed by the government to curb the spread of COVID-19. "When further restricting the leisure industry, at this crucial time of year for the industry, shouldn't we also be looking at other sectors that are accounting for the high number of pos- itive cases that have been registered in recent weeks?" Fenech said that no one could deny the fact that the number of positive cases had increasing despite the leisure industry having been practically shut down. He acknowledged that it would also be fair to say that if all the measures on the leisure industry were to be lifted, the number of cases could only increase. "But hopefully this will be the last ef- fort and sacrifice that the leisure indus- try is called upon to make, seemingly on behalf of all others," he said. Fenech said that many businesses had suffered a lot in the past few weeks, moreso than any other sector. e leisure industry has had to endure the lockdown in April, and then – when the lockdown was lifted – saw restric- tions imposed on capacity and func- tion. e less spending by customers, coupled with the decision in August to shut clubs and to impose new measures on bars, snack bars and other eating es- tablishments in November, has left the industry reeling. Numerous business owners insist they are close to financial ruin as most still have to pay rent and other expenses even while regis- tering little or no income. And there seems to be no end in sight yet to the plight of bar own- ers. "Operators in the leisure in- dustry now need to brace themselves for the next three months," Fenech said. "ey need to plan ahead, so that once all the measures are lifted, even if fol- lowing the administration of a vaccine, they will be well-positioned to return to business and profitability in as little time as possible." Wage subsidy mismatch Matthew Pace, secretary of the As- sociation for Catering Establishments, told BusinessToday that measures im- posed on catering establishments were unfair. "Quite a few snack bar licenses are in actual fact operating a fully fledged catering establishment and all is ac- cording to their licensing requirements, so depriving these from selling alco- hol over the festive dates is unfair, as is also the closure of Kazini some of which again are ful- ly fledged licensed catering establish- ments," he said. Pace said the association had been insisting that more consultation with the tourism min- istry and the Malta Tourism Authority was needed before subjecting entrepre- neurs to such conditions. "is pandemic has been dragging for almost nine months now and while we understand that measures have to be implemented to curb its spread, we have also to bear in mind that business- es cannot remain functional if they are shut down," he said. e association has also been calling for government wage supplements to be extended to also cover those staff members replacing those previously included in the scheme and that the supplement provided should match the €800 per month per employee paid out to restaurant staff falling under a hotel license. Philip Fenech Matthew Pace

• Cover