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3 NEWS 1.7.2021 FROM PAGE 1 e Prime Minister insisted the gov- ernment will not introduce new tax- es but asked the social partners to coope"Legitimate businesses have nothing to worry about, but we cannot tolerate abusers," he told the MCESD. e media was allowed in for the in- troductory remarks. e meeting con- tinued for almost two hours behind closed doors. Abela said the government had signed an action plan and commitment with the FATF to address three key areas of weakness identified by the international monitors. However, Abela would not say what the timeframes for the action plan were when asked by journalists after the meeting. He insisted the plan was very techni- cal and it was government's intention to accelerate the timeframes and get back on the whitelist as quickly as pos- sible. Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has already ruled out October, when the FATF meets again, as the target date for getting off the greylist. On Joseph Muscat Asked whether he would publicly dis- tance himself from Joseph Muscat, Ab- ela insisted that his predecessor was no longer in government or in parliament. e Prime Minister added that he would never justify Panama Papers. Abela told the social partners that gov- ernment will clamp down on corporate service providers that set up obscure fi- nancial structures to help clients avoid tax and launder money. Another aspect highlighted by FATF was the need to have more accurate in- formation on ultimate beneficial own- ers and sanctions against professionals entrusted with the responsibility to pro- vide such information. Abela said Malta had already come a long way in beefing up its register of ul- timate beneficial ownership of compa- nies but insisted abusers still exist and government will have to address this. e Prime Minister warned that to get back onto the FATF whitelist, Maltese authorities were going to need more bite to go with their bark. He said regulatory authorities had to be given more power and hoped that the Opposition would support propos- als to allow authorities to hand out fines that until now can only be imposed by a court of law. Another issue highlighted by FATF was the type of intelligence gathered by the Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit, especially on criminal tax evasion. e Prime Minister said the govern- ment planned on investing more in the FIAU despite having already increased its budget tremendously. Grech addresses MCESD Opposition leader Bernard Grech has called on the social partners to join his call for a national task force to get Malta off the FATF greylist. e suggestion was shot down by the government when made last week. "Government should not ignore our call for a national effort which recog- nises and solves the problems we have," Grech said told a special session of the Malta Council for Economic and So- cial Development on Wednesday in the wake of Malta's greylisting. "As outlined by the FATF report itself, Malta cannot downplay the greylist's impact on our economy and jobs," he said. "e time has come to call a spade, a spade." He also said the Opposition filed a mo- tion in parliament calling for the FATF's full correspondence and proposed ac- tion plan to be tabled in the House. "We as an Opposition cannot rely solely on media reports, if we truly want to fix the situation… is is a critical moment for Malta, no rhetoric or cliché will take our country out of this dark al- ley," he said. He also said that several MCESD members have told him that govern- ment was not hearing them out when implementing decisions. "I promise to ensure that dialogue be- tween government and social partners is strengthened," he said. "As leader of the Opposition and as part of the PN, we are here to continue meeting with you individually and collectively to en- sure that the dialogue is truly carried out." Hili Company wins tender for Durres Container Terminal MARINER Adriatic, a Hili Company subsidiary, has taken over the man- agement and operation of Durres Container Terminal in Albania. The container terminal handles over 90% of Albania's container traffic. It is also well placed to serve its landlocked hinterland, including Kosovo, Serbia and North Macedonia. Road connectivity is being enhanced with infrastructural investments de- creasing trucking distances, whilst special customs arrangements are being made with neighbouring coun- tries allowing for the completion of customs procedures in the Port of Durres. The contract has been award- ed following an international tender process. Hili Company's terminals and logis- tics segment, Mariner, also owns Bal- tic Container Terminal, which holds the concession for the leading con- tainer terminal in Riga, Latvia, and is a 50 per cent partner in Terminal Intermodale Venezia with Mediterra- nean Shipping Company, which it op- erates in Venice, Italy. The Latvia terminal handles over two thirds of all containerised cargo in Latvia, whilst the group's Venice operation is the leading container ter- minal in the Port of Venice in terms of volumes handled. The company will be implementing an operational efficiency programme. This will include upgrading its ter- minal software to the market-leading Navis N4 system, updating operation- al practices and processes, staff train- ing and the implementation of a com- prehensive maintenance programme. "We are delighted to have been awarded the management and oper- ation of Durres Container Terminal. This represents an important step in our group's development and demon- strates further our standing as an international container terminal op- erator," Edward Hili, Chief Executive Officer of Hili Company, said. "Moreover, we are very pleased by the trust being placed in us by the Al- banian authorities in operating what is a key asset for the country. We are confident with the plan we have in place to take the operation forward and will be giving it the full focus and attention which it deserves." Grech asks social partners to support his call for a national taskforce on greylisting Bernard Grech

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