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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 28 JUNE 2015 6 News JURGEN BALZAN VITALS Global Healthcare (VGH) are the preferred bidders for the management and operation of St Luke's Hospital, Karin Grech Re- habilitation Hospital and the Gozo General Hospital. The €200 million investment is expected to deliver a 180-bed "state of the art" rehabilitation hospital and a dermatology centre on the site of the former general hospital in Gwardamangia. Three bids were submitted after a call for proposals was issued in April this year for the management and operation of the three hospitals. The other two bidders were Image Hos- pitals and BSP Investments Ltd. The government is expecting to sign a deal with the Singapore-based VGH by the end of the year and the works on the three hospitals are ex- pected to start in 2016. VGH set up a Malta firm in May 2015, with Oxley Capital chief ex- ecutive Mark Pawley and Canadian- Indian spa entrepreneur Ram Tu- muluri as directors. Health parliamentary secretary Chris Fearne said the Gwardamang- ia rehabilitation centre will "provide the country with a full complement state of the art hospital." Of the 180 beds, 80 will be avail- able to the government, the rest for "medical tourism." A further 150 beds in the revamped Gozo hospi- tal and 50 at Karin Grech hospital will be used to "relieve the pressure on Mater Dei Hospital" and free up more beds for acute patients. The new Gozo private hospital – for both Gozitans and medical tour- ists – will provide around 300 new acute beds, adding to the existing 200 geriatric beds, bringing the total of beds to 450. Karin Grech will see beds increase by 50 to 320, including 12 for a new dermatology centre. VGH will be refurbishing SLH, now in disuse for the past 10 years. The new hospital will offer rehabili- tation and wellness services, treat- ment in internal medicine, physical and occupational therapy, radiol- ogy, and family counselling. It will include a new hydrotherapy pool and the latest technology for the rehabilitation of patients. Health and energy minister Kon- rad Mizzi underlined the impor- tance of rehabilitation, which plays a vital role in the successful return of patients to the community. The three projects are expected to create around 1,000 new jobs. VGH will rent the premises from the government, and pay for the services of doctors, nurses and other hospital staff provided by the govern- ment. On its part, the government will pay a fixed price and a small yearly inflation rate for 30 years for the beds provided by VGH. The privately-managed hospitals will be obliged to abide by the stand- ards set by national health authori- ties, while the government will be beefing up its superintendence of public health, which regulates both public and private hospitals. Vitals Global clinches €200m hospitals project REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE EU 2017 REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE EU 2017 Catering and hospitality; Textile products; and Good quality gifts and mementos. The Parliamentary Secretariat for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds, within the Ministry for European Affairs and Implementation of the Electoral Manifesto, invites proposals from commercial entities in respect of potential sponsorship opportunities in the context of Malta's forthcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union to be held in 2017. Areas in which the EU Presidency Unit welcomes contributions include: Transport services; IT goods and services; Telecommunications related services; Logistics services; Other areas may be identified in due course. The guidelines governing the sponsorship opportunities including the exposure given to the Presidency Corporate Sponsors are available online at www.eufunds.gov.mt. APPLICATIONS WILL BE RECEIVED UNTIL THE 31 ST AUGUST 2015. Further queries can be addressed to Mr Charles Mizzi, Executive Director – Media & Marketing on charles.a.mizzi@gov.mt. REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE EU 2017 REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE EU 2017 THE EU 2017 THE EU 2017 THE EU 2017 The Parliamentary Secretariat for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds, within the Ministry for European Affairs and Implementation of the Electoral Manifesto, invites proposals from commercial entities in respect of potential sponsorship opportunities in the context of Malta's forthcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union to be held in 2017. Areas in which the EU Presidency Unit welcomes contributions include: Transport services; IT goods and services; Telecommunications related services; Logistics services; Other areas may be identified in due course. The guidelines governing the sponsorship opportunities including the exposure given to the Presidency Corporate Sponsors are available online at APPLICATIONS WILL BE RECEIVED UNTIL THE 31 Further queries can be addressed to Mr Charles Mizzi, Executive Director – Media & Marketing on charles.a.mizzi@gov.mt. REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE EU 2017 REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP REQUEST FOR COMMERCIAL SPONSORSHIP 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 352326$/6,1&211(&7,21:,7+0$/7$·6 PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF PRESIDENCY OF THE COUNCIL OF THE EU 2017 THE EU 2017 THE EU 2017 THE EU 2017 The Parliamentary Secretariat for EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds, within the Ministry for European Affairs and Implementation of the Electoral Manifesto, invites proposals from commercial entities in respect of potential sponsorship opportunities in the context of Malta's forthcoming Presidency of the Council of the European Union to be held in 2017. Areas in which the EU Presidency Unit welcomes contributions include: Transport services; IT goods and services; Telecommunications related services; Logistics services; Other areas may be identified in due course. The guidelines governing the sponsorship opportunities including the exposure given to the Presidency Corporate Sponsors are available online at APPLICATIONS WILL BE RECEIVED UNTIL THE 31 PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARIAT FOR THE EU PRESIDENCY 2017 AND EU FUNDS of the Council of the 2017 Maltese Presidency European Union An architect's rendition of the proposed rehab centre at Gwardamangia Muscat reassures Maltese banks are not exposed to Greece JURGEN BALZAN PRIME Minister Joseph Muscat gave an assurance that if Greece is declared bankrupt, Malta will not be negatively affected because "Maltese banks are not exposed to Greece". Late on Friday, Greek Prime Min- ister Alexis Tsipras called a surprise referendum for 5 July, next Sunday, over the terms of any new deal, but Eurozone foreign ministers have withdrawn the proposed agreement which the Greek government re- fused. Greece has to pay €1.6 billion to the IMF by Tuesday but without new funds, there are fears Greece may leave the euro and default. "I would like to put everybody's mind at rest that in the worst case scenario of Greece defaulting, Mal- tese banks will not suffer any conse- quences." Moreover, he said that if Greece exits the eurozone its debts, includ- ing the €177 million owed to Malta, will be repaid. Insisting that the Greek govern- ment's decision to hold a referendum was "irresponsible" Muscat said that although the Greek government had a right to hold a referendum "it did not have the decency to discuss the matter within the European Council which ended on Friday". He said it had been expected that the referendum would be held be- fore Tuesday's deadline. Speaking from Gozo from where his wife embarked on a charity swim across the channel, Muscat said the Eurogroup would continue dis- cussing the matter without Greece, adding that it seems that the debt- ridden country was not in a position to repay by Tuesday the €1.7 billion it owes the IMF. Greece denied bailout extension On Saturday, Eurozone finance ministers rejected a Greek request for an extension of the bailout. Prior to the foreign ministers' de- cision, Tsipras apparently told Ger- man chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande that "democracy is of the highest or- der in Greece and the referendum will take place regardless of the Eu- rogroup decision". Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijssel- bloem said finance ministers would reconvene to discuss the conse- quences of the latest developments without the Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis. However Dijsselbloem said that with "no comprehensive package agreed," the Greek government fac- es the expiry of its aid programme on Tuesday night without any fu- ture financing in place. Now it is up to the European Cen- tral Bank (ECB) to decide whether to continue providing emergency liquidity funding to the Greek bank- ing system, he added. What next? As the deadline for Greece's IMF payment looms, lines begun to form outside ATMs and bank branches in Athens early yesterday morning. One particular bank imposed with- drawal limits of €3,000 per account, and some ATMs had handwritten "empty" signs on them. Another bank went to the extreme of issuing ticket numbers and customers were told to go back in a few hours when their turn was up. Capital controls and bank holidays will likely be needed to stem the haemorrhage and the ECB could yet save the day if it decides to continue funding Greek banks. The ECB – through the Central Bank of Greece – would in theory be prohibited under its own rules from continuing to provide Emergency Liquidity Assistance – the name for the life-or-death support provided by the ECB – to the banks but on the other hand it cannot be seen as the cause of total financial collapse and Greek's exit from the eurozone and possibly the EU. In his emotionally-charged speech on Friday, Tsipras said "the question on the ballot will be whether the institutions' proposal should be ac- cepted or rejected." Greek MPs were set to decide at a midnight vote on Saturday whether to approve the referendum propos- al, however this has created some confusion given that the bailout will expire on Tuesday. Therefore, ultimately the referendum will be a verdict over Greece's permanence in the eurozone. A No victory will most probably seal Greece's departure from the eu- rozone and the ECB will immediate- ly cut off the ELA lifeline to Greek banks if it would not have done so before the vote. A Greek default will not automati- cally lead to its expulsion from the eurozone but there would be no rea- son for Greece to stay and the most likely outcome would see the return of the defunct drachma. On Friday, Tsipras warned against a deal which would result in further "social inequalities" and equated to the "humiliation of the Greek peo- ple." A Yes victory would mean return- ing to Brussels to negotiate a new deal, but given Tsipras' clear oppo- sition to such an outcome it is very unlikely that the current govern- ment will be in place for long. Moreover, a new government will be in a weakened position as the creditors will interpret a favorable vote as a signal to impose further austerity as the Greek economy will most probably slip further into re- cession. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat with his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras in Brussels