“Back in December of last year, Malta spearheaded an initiative that brought on board Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, where together we agreed to promote and work further in the blockchain and DLT sphere, share our expertise and knowledge, and most importantly enhance further our cooperation in this new emergent industry,” said Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Economy and Innovation Silvio Schembri.

“The signing of that declaration was clear evidence of a sense of acknowledgement of this emergent industry. Today’s initiative of a memorandum of understanding takes us a step further, it marks our commitment, as the seven EU member states, to establish a framework for the sharing of best practices in the design and application of DLT at a governmental level. This framework will help us as a region, to achieve the maximum potential of such technologies and enable us to enhance the daily lives of our citizens,” the junior minister added, tagging the MoU as a “historic milestone”.

Under the agreement, Malta, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Cyprus commit to exploring the possibility to cooperate on cross-border distributed ledger technologies projects and to share best practices in the application of distributed ledger technologies, according to the DOI press release. The MoU has established a framework for the sharing of best practices in the design and application of distributed ledger technologies at a governmental level between the countries.

The post Malta signs MoU on DLT cooperation with six EU countries first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

Theodosis Michalopoulos has been named the acting CEO of Microsoft in Greece, Cyprus and Malta, upon the departure of Peggy Antonakou, until a new Chief Executive Officer is appointed, according to a press statement sent to Business Malta. In his new interim role, he will focus on contributing to the transformation and growth of the company’s customers and partners in Greece, Cyprus and Malta.

After leading the branch for seven years, Ms Antonakou will pursue a career outside Microsoft, and her role will temporarily be filled by Mr Michalopoulos, who is a member of the Leadership Team of the company and currently holds the position of Enterprise Commercial and Public Sector Sales Director for Microsoft in Greece, Cyprus and Malta.

Mr Michalopoulos joined the Microsoft in 2014, as of the Director of the Consumer Channels Group. Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, he contributed to achieving a “highly-prosperous period in the sales sector” for three consecutive years, Microsoft says.

Becoming the Enterprise Commercial Sales Director, he led the transformation of a traditional sales approach into a modern customer-centric model “to significantly empower the digital transformation of Microsoft” in Greece, Cyprus and Malta, the Microsoft press statement adds.

Mr Michalopoulos holds a BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Sussex, an MSc in Communications & Signal Engineering from the Imperial College of Science & Technology of London and an MBA from the Athens Laboratory of Business Administration (ALBA).

The post Microsoft names interim CEO for Greece, Cyprus and Malta first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.

Mr Herrera, accompanied by the Ambassador of Malta to Greece Joseph Cuschieri, explained that Malta has established a comprehensive legislative framework — the Cultural Heritage Act — in order to preserve the symbolic sites, cultural heritage and identity. Moreover, he noted that Maltese national agency for museums, cultural heritage and conservation practice Heritage Malta works on ensuring continuous conservation, restoration and management of cultural sites, including museums, historical sites and buildings, while effectively monitoring and reporting the impacts of natural effects on the heritage sites.

In addition, the minister stated that the conference offered the opportunity to conceptualise plans and learn more about how to fight the threat of climate change. He also underlined that the world is experiencing more frequent extreme weather phenomena, which is causing damages to different sites.

Thus, with the increasing incidence of climate change already felt through various sporadic extreme climatic events around the world, measures should be taken to adapt to climate change and protect infrastructures, natural and cultural assets, as the DOI press release says.  

Mr Herrera continued explaining that through the effective use of European Union funds, Malta is aiming to ensure the protection of archaeological sites through the construction of walkways and protective tents, the sheltering of ancient temples from direct rainfall, solar radiation and ground humidity so as to prevent potential damages, and reducing the risks of degradation while stabilising the environmental conditions to which they are exposed to.

The minister said also that Malta has recently set up an Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit to preserve marine sites and in order to make underwater areas accessible to the public, while preserving their history and culture.

In conclusion, he added that it is the duty of policymakers to protect such a public good and to design effective policies to address the issue.

The post Maltese environment minister promotes cultural heritage protection in Greece first appeared on The Malta Business Weekly.