Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/602004
Events 48 maltatoday, Sunday, 15 november 2015 Famalco Group holds Autumn barbecue Famalco Group has recently organised an autumn barbecue as part of its commitment to in- teract with the Group's staff. Famalco Group's staff bar- becue was held on Friday 23 and Thursday 29 october after working hours where guests were treated with delicious bar- becue cooked food and other refreshments. The staff had the opportunity to mingle, socialise, relax and have fun over a cooked meal with colleagues. The event was organised by the Group's Events committee which has the pleasure of organising all corporate activities throughout the year. one of the Directors at Famal- co Group, Hermann mallia, commented that, "Famalco Group's long term relationship with its entire staff is not taken lightly, and we strive to listen to our employees' requests. com- mitment and dedication that are resulting in events of such high calibre contribute to the Group's identity and team building". Famalco Group is an evolving organisation with a constant drive for new business ventures and growth opportunities. If you believe that you have the right qualities to contribute to the Group and to your high- level career growth, you are invited to visit our website on www.famalcocareers.com, call on 2339 2339 or send an email to hr@famalco.net. €4,000 to be won in HSBC's debit card competition THIs festive sea- son, HsBc Bank malta plc's cus- tomers have an- other great reason to use their debit cards. By paying for their shopping, restaurant bills or other services on Global Payments point-of-sales ter- minals in malta and Gozo they will automatically take part in a competition with a chance to win one of four €1,000 prizes. The competition is open from the 15 November 2015 to 15 January 2016, with two winners announced on the 14th Decem- ber 2015, and another two at the end of the campaign. The win- ners will need to correctly an- swer trivia questions to claim the prize. HsBc malta's Head of Retail Banking and Wealth manage- ment Paul steel said: "We know that our customers are making greater use of their debit cards all the time. HsBc debit cards give our customers a convenient method of payment, removing the need to carry large amounts of cash. "our partners, Global Payments malta, have provided local busi- nesses with thousands of state of the art point-of-sales machines, which means our debit cards are accepted all over malta & Gozo..'' Busiest day for Vodafone's High Speed Network on Thank You Day WHEREas liking, Pinning or Tweeting are common on the net, saying thank you is new. Vodafone spent the past weeks thanking its customers, with the initiative cul- minating in a full day of free mo- bile internet for everyone. customers made full use of Vo- dafone's special Thank You day, celebrated last monday. This event, which was a first for any telecoms service provider in mal- ta, saw each and every Vodafone customer enjoying completely free and unlimited mobile data for a full day without even having to ask for it. customers took full advantage of this offer by downloading more mobile data than ever registered before on the Vodafone network, an increase of over 60% when compared to an average working day. To give some idea, the amount of data downloaded in just this one day was equivalent to 64,000 hours, or seven years, of You Tube videos. Vodafone confirmed that network performance was stable throughout the day. amanda Nelson, Vodafone mal- ta's cEo explained the reasoning behind the event by saying "Hav- ing just achieved the 99% popula- tion coverage on our 4G network we could think of no better way to celebrate this achievement than by giving each and every one of our customer the freedom to use unlimited mobile data through our network for a full day, entirely free. "We are immensely pleased that this means of saying Thank You seemed to have hit the spot so well judging by the level of response we received." Vodafone prepared intensively for this event and over 100 em- ployees were involved behind the scenes to make this a special day for their customers, from engi- neers and technicians in Voda- fone's Technology Department, to customer service representatives who were ready to assist custom- ers who took advantage of the event to use mobile internet for the first time. Kim Zahra, systems Engineer, explained "We were looking for- ward to 9 November for some weeks now. For those of us who work day in and day out to keep our network operating at its best it was so gratifying to be able to thank each and every one of our customers by giving them the chance to use our network to the full and to enjoy all that mobile internet has to offer." matthew Galea, Networks Engi- neer, also commented, "This was an opportunity to demonstrate that our network is more than capable of handling all the extra traffic that was generated. We say we have the best network. 9th November gave us the chance to prove it." Valletta summit must provide 'concrete, executable, long-term solutions' - Mizzi sHoRTlY after the beginning of the EU- africa summit in Val- letta on the refugee crisis, mEP marlene mizzi stated that her expectations on the EU african summit were hopeful but re- alistic. The Valletta sum- mit brought together more than 40 african and EU heads of state and government to discuss the migration crisis. "I don't expect that the Valletta summit will come up with a magical solution to the problem of mi- gration. I expect this summit to be the first step towards better cooperation and open political dialogue be- tween Europe and african countries, rather than discussing this problem amongst ourselves," said mizzi in her comment, short- ly after the start of the summit. However, in a strong statement at the ple- nary session in stras- bourg in preparation for the Valletta sum- mit, mizzi had already urged the member states and the african countries to use the EU-african summit in Valletta as a platform to develop a far-looking EU-africa strategy to find concrete solutions in tackling the causes of migration at the ori- gin. "People are no long- er forced to f lee their homes if provided with a better future in their own countries. We have concentrated too much on solving the problems after the migrants ar- rive in Europe. We have to find solutions for them in their own countries so that they will not have to leave. "The right way forward is through a better co-operation with our african partners. The summit is a unique opportunity to ref lect upon malta's impor- tant role in this crisis but also to come forward with a genuine international response to it by agreeing long-term strategy that deals with the causes of migra- tion", said mizzi. "I also expect that the conclu- sions of the EU-africa summit in Valletta will finally deliver concrete tangible results. Very often when it comes to migra- tion decisions in Europe, mem- ber states lack commitment and political will to implement and enforce those decisions. We don't have problems agreeing, we have problems executing and monitoring. "The summit must ensure international executable com- mitment by all its parties. oth- erwise it will be just another leaders' meeting with much talk and no walk," said mizzi. Interacting with the staff: a Famalco Group barbecue Vodafone employees at the Thank You Day MEP Marlene Mizzi