Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1390871
9 EDITORIAL BusinessToday is published every Thursday. The newspaper is a MediaToday publication and is distributed to all leading stationers, business and financial institutions and banks. MANAGING EDITOR: SAVIOUR BALZAN EDITOR: PAUL COCKS BusinessToday, MediaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN9016, Malta Newsroom email: bt@mediatoday.com.mt Advertising: afarrugia@mediatoday.com.mt Telephone: 00356 21 382741 B usinesses wanting to open shop in Malta have to deal with unwieldy bureaucracy when interfacing with regulatory agencies and public entities. Many times, information and docu- mentation requested by one entity is then requested by others that operate in isolation from one another. is causes unnecessary red tape, du- plication or triplication of work and wasted resources that can be deployed elsewhere or more fruitfully. is point was raised yesterday by Ru- dolph Psaila, who heads the public-pri- vate partnership Finance Malta, during a discussion on government's economic vision for the next 10 years. e consul- tation document is currently being dis- cussed with stakeholders. Psaila called for a seamless approach in which investors that are required to give information about themselves and their operations do so once and a central hub will allow different regulatory agencies to access the data. He was reflecting the lament often made by business operators in their dealings with multiple agencies. Speaking at the same event, Malta Fi- nancial Services Authority acting CEO Christopher Buttigieg, questioned whether the time was ripe for consolida- tion among certain regulatory authori- ties that had overlapping functions. e points raised provide food for thought. While consolidation in some areas may be salutary, in others it risks diluting the specialised focus required to provide good governance in the sector. Within this context careful considera- tion has to be given to authorities with specialised roles like the MFSA, the FIAU and the Central Bank of Malta that may have overlapping functions but have specific roles within the country's regulatory makeup. However, even in these cases there may be scope for information sharing that minimises bureaucracy. Information collected by the MFSA during its due diligence exercise can easily be shared with the FIAU and vice versa. To do this, reporting and informa- tion-gathering mechanisms have to be streamlined and digital platforms have to be able to communicate between themselves. Greater coordination and interoper- ability between the different agencies is increasingly becoming a necessity to improve efficiency and ensure compet- itiveness. But this inter-agency coordination is also important to strengthen good gov- ernance and the rule of law. Criminals and people with ill-intent of- ten exploit the void created when public institutions adopt silo mentalities. e fight against financial crime and cy- ber terrorism will increasingly take on greater importance in the years to come. e cross-border nature of these crimes will require cooperation between differ- ent countries but also between agencies within the individual states. Good governance is one of the pillars on which the government is basing its economic vision for the next 10 years. is is crucial because legitimate busi- nesses require a level playing field, fair- ness and robust regulations to be able to flourish. Within this context adopting some form of regulatory sandbox where dif- ferent agencies cooperate and share in- formation is a must. How this is done will require input from the stakeholders since the expec- tations and demands of each may be dif- ferent. Even though the term bureaucracy conjures up negative images, it is neces- sary to ensure that proper controls are in place and actions can be traced, espe- cially in the public sphere. What Malta needs as it goes forward is intelligent bureaucracy underpinned by technology and which does its function without stifling economic growth or in- novation. Intelligent bureaucracy 8.7.2021