Mr Farrugia explained that despite an increase in population, tourist arrivals and affluence, Malta has registered a decrease in crime rate and how the Malta Police Force (MPF) is expressing more effort in order to strengthen the cybercrime and economic crime units. Both the minister and the director agreed on the need for enhanced training on an international level in the economic and cybercrime units.

The minister also said that the MPF has doubled its human resources and is investing in continuous training, underlining that security forces must be proactive and a step ahead of criminal organisations and continuous training is needed.

“Malta has always supported any incentives taken by CEPOL and will continue to do so in the future. We will continue to enhance our bilateral cooperation and support CEPOL in all its initiatives,” said Mr Farrugia.

In addition, Mr Schroder stated that collaboration needs to continue not only at a national level but also at international level.

The post Minister urges sharing efforts in fight against organised crime first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The minister explained that trauma management is a fundamental element of emergency planning which is often overlooked, taken for granted or treated as an afterthought. In a crisis, where the onset of impacts could be very sudden and when risk events simply develop very fast, the effects of hazards are felt almost instantly.

The conference sought to address public policy development by highlighting the widespread appearance of trauma and underlining the importance of high-quality trauma-informed services, particularly with National Emergency Services.

“My ministry is actively planning for major incident scenarios by finalising the essential national emergency response and planning frameworks. Raising awareness is fundamental to bringing major incident trauma into the national and international social agenda. Further research is needed in this field and our government actively encourages and supports such initiatives,” said the minister.

The minister also analysed how multiple layers of victims can be directly affected and traumatised. The broader community can be in shock and even the emergency services themselves are not immune from the effects of shock, distress and suffering.

The post Minister emphasises importance of trauma management first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

CIESM is the largest association of Mediterranean marine scientists, as the press release says. Its congresses take place every three years and are the main forums where scientists from the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and the adjacent Atlantic present the results of their latest research and exchange ideas.

The three UM academics are Professor Patrick J. Schembri, Julian Evans and Leyla Knittweis and the topics treated by them and the students included the history of invasion of a non-indigenous species of Foraminifera in Maltese coastal waters, the ecology of an alien alga colonising Maltese coasts, the habitats and biodiversity of the deep-sea — 200m to 1000m — around Malta, the discards resulting from the trawl fishery in the Malta Fisheries Management Zone and the management of litter from Fish Aggregation Devices used in the dolphinfish lampuka fishery.

Extended abstracts of the projects presented by the UM representatives will be published in the proceedings of the CIESM Congress.

Moreover, the UM Department of Biology strives to be a centre of excellence in marine biological research, which is fundamental because the University of Malta is part of the European University of the Sea (SEA-EU), which is a consortium of European universities with a maritime tradition funded by the European Commission through its “European Universities” initiative.

The post UM academics attend 42nd CIESM Congress first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The lecture will cover over 150 years of curating the collections and how a collection of 1,700 specimens has managed to reach a 10,000 figure.

In addition, the event will focus on some specimens and a number of donations, the taxidermists who prepared the specimens and the curators and ornithologists who studied Maltese birds.

Participants will learn about the role of the collections in the museum as tangible records, as comparative and prime source material for scientists making use of genetic studies, as well as aids to police investigations. Moreover, the talk will include the future of these collections, including their digitisation and their accessibility on the internet.

Admission to this event is free of charge.

The post HM to hold public lecture on birds in Mdina first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The story is set in Wales and is based on the 1954 radio drama by the Welsh poet and playwright Dylan Thomas.

An omniscient narrator walks the audience through the dreams and thoughts of the residents of a tiny fictional Welsh fishing village: Llareggub — derived from the phrase “bugger all”.

The post Welsh lyrical play ‘Under Milk Wood’ comes to Malta first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“I am thrilled to be in the Maltese debut of We Will Rock You. Freddie Mercury is an all-round showman, so I cannot wait to rock out in his shoes,” said West-End performer Jordan Carr, who plays the main character Galileo Figaro.

“I have played the role over 300 times in London, so to be Killer Queen in Malta is rather special to me. The Maltese cast is incredibly talented, and I immediately felt so welcome. It is a brilliant script and a mind-blowing show,” added the West End actress Katie Paine, who will perform as the villain Killer Queen.

The show is one of the London longest-running musicals and offers a societal critique set to the music of the Queen.

The post ‘We Will Rock You’ debuts in Malta first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The new guide book gives all the necessary information to customers about the temples with text and photos and the author will be signing copies on the day.

The temples were built between 3600 BC and 2500 BC and they are part of the UNESCO World Heritage List representing examples of architecture illustrating a stage in human history. The temples were discovered in 1913 by a local farmer while ploughing his fields.

The area was excavated revealing a megalithic site. Sections of the structure were highly decorated with spirals and reliefs of animals and a stone bowl, part of a statue and a number of interesting stone features added to the mystique of the site.

HM will also offer guided one hour tours on a first come, first served basis. Moreover, visitors can enjoy a pottery session and attend an archaeology meeting held by the Classics and Archaeology Student Association.

The event will start at 9:00 and will finish at 17:00 with last admissions at 16:30.

The post Heritage Malta to hold open day in Tarxien Temples first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

“Although in the last years, road safety in the European Union has seen a lot of improvement, we still have too many people being injured or losing their lives on the road. That is why we need to continue legislating, educating and implementing measures toward safer roads,” said Mr Borg.

Minister Borg also made a reference to the Valletta Declaration signed in 2017 during the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which aims to encourage EU member states to implement measures in order to move closer to no deaths caused by road accidents.

“It is important to continue educating and to continue delivering educational messages even in our schools. I believe that enforcement should be strong, and we are ensuring that this is true on our roads every day,” the minister added.

The post Transport minister stresses education, infrastructure as key contributors to road safety first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The event supports the Save the Valletta Skyline appeal, which hopes to raise €8m in order to fund work on the tower, spire and structure of St Paul’s Cathedral.

The show will feature the Saturday Night Bee Gees, a band who tributes the late 1960s band Gee Bees. Moreover, the pre- and post-event will host DJ Ian Lang from Isle of MTV

The Saturday Night Bee Gees will channel the disco decade with live performances of classic Bee Gees songs such as “Stayin’ Alive” and “Jive Talkin’”, and other dance songs from artists like Diana Ross and Tina Turner.

“Whether the sounds of the 70s were the soundtrack of your youth or of your favourite new movie, there’s a little bit of 1970s swagger still in all of us. Grab your tickets today to go back to this epic era of flares, sparkle and dancing for one-night-only of disco fun at the wonderful Gianpula Main Room,” said Ankie Ellul, organiser of Disco Fever.

The post Malta to host Disco Fever night charity event first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

The app was designed after receiving feedback from the public and realising that businesses’ reported difficulties in making sense of the overwhelming and disjointed amount of information from many different sources on support and incentives available to them.

The app aims to be a practical and streamlined platform that can help local businesses rifle through the available collection of schemes and other incentives available from all government organisations.

Support measures available through the app are grouped based on the type of funding mechanism and are further categorised by the sectors they target.

Each page relating to a particular incentive provides basic information about the scheme, with direct links to more detailed information along with contact details pertaining to the entity managing each initiative.

The mobile app entitled Enterprise Incentives is available on Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store.

Malta SME Week kicks off with StartUp Café

The Malta SME Week is also taking place now. Mr Cardona’s launch of the week-long event series, as well as the app, was announced at the second edition of Malta Enterprise’s StartUp Café. During this event, Malta Enterprise said it has supported startups with €2m since 2015.

The Malta SME Week is part of the European Commission’s EU-wide SME Week events, which aim to generate public awareness among people who wish to start a business or are already in business and wish to grow their activities. The event series lasts for six weeks. This year’s edition is featuring a wide range of events targeting different audiences.

The SME Week in Malta ties with the economy ministry’s efforts to promote entrepreneurship as a career option while providing information on national and EU entities assistance to micro, small and medium-sized businesses and also giving recognition to entrepreneurs for their contribution to Malta’s welfare, jobs, innovation, and competitiveness, according to the DOI press release.

“October has become synonymous for the local business community with events that bring us and the relevant stakeholders all together, where we update each other on local and European trends. It’s also an opportunity for us to have a better idea of what challenges and realities our businesses are facing,” said economy minister Mr Cardona.

The StartUp Café brought together some 120 young enterprises looking to start their own business. During the event, professionals and academics shared their experiences in order to help participants to develop their entrepreneurial skills. In addition, participants participated in workshops and networking sessions with the panellists.

The post Mobile app aims to assist businesses in Malta first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.