Gozo Business Chamber chairman urges return to ethical values

Speaking at the 20th anniversary of the Gozo Business Chamber, chairman Joseph Borg urged a return, nationwide, to ethical values.

Referring to the current political crisis, Borg asked: “How have we come here?” He blamed himself first of all for not speaking out when he should have. “We have sullied both politics and trade,” he said “and our collective silence has removed trust in the institutions and honest persons have been reduced to being equivalent to criminals”.

“Everybody knows what is right, what is fair, what one should do and what should be avoided. What goes for politics is also valid for business. We cannot continue that all we can do is right, as long as it gives us power or money. We have swept away our principles, our values, the bases upon which our country has been built and irreparable damage has been caused to our country.

“The only way forward is through going back to the values of honesty, principles and values. It is only in this way that the rule of law can be restored to our country. If our actions are not based on justice, truth and morality, we will not be able to reach common good as we would want to.”

Borg announced that the Chamber will hold a series of activities to discuss business and ethics because business cannot cut itself off from morality if it wants to attain common good.

Quoting what was written by Cicero so many hundreds of years back, Borg asked “Is there a limit to the system of give-aways (pjaciri)? Have we stopped handing out comfy jobs with the government? How can the private sector compete with the government which has been proved able to employ a person that never turns up to work or just turns up for a very short time? And what happens to the politician who tries to rope in this laissez-faire tradition? He will end up not being elected at all.”

Then Borg targeted another complaint by the business community. “How can we local manufacturers compete with foreign companies who bring in goods bypassing the VAT regime? How can local businesses compete with companies, especially foreign ones, who benefit from special tax rates?”