MCESD and SiGMA Team Up to Promote Social Dialogue Amongst Gaming and Tech Industries
The MCESD has teamed up with SiGMA Group on a new media initiative aimed at raising awareness of the importance of social dialogue within Malta’s gaming and technology industries. To launch this collaboration, MCESD Chairman Perit David Xuereb visited SiGMA’s headquarters in Balzan, where he met with the SiGMA News team to share insights on how ESG principles and Malta’s Vision 2050 are shaping the country’s future.
In a media interview, Xuereb explained that social dialogue is not confined to wage discussions or workplace rights. Instead, it is a process that unites government, employers, industry leaders, and society in open conversation about long-term challenges and opportunities.
For Xuereb, ESG values, environmental responsibility, social wellbeing, and good governance are the foundations of this dialogue, providing the compass for Malta’s sustainable development. Speaking exclusively with SiGMA World, Xuereb said that the transition to a green economy with strong governance and social resilience must be central to Vision 2050.
Throughout the interview, SiGMA Media and Chairman Xuereb touched upon the following five topics:
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Business transformation and risk management
“Businesses with CEOs that have the future very clearly in their mind would, of course, realise that sustainability, future existence, and the bottom line return toward their business will depend on how able they are to visualise,” Xuereb told SiGMA World.
Xuereb explained that forward-looking businesses assess “the environmental risks, the social risks and the governance risks that any business could go through”. Success, he stressed, depends on respecting all stakeholders. “They would realise that the transformation into this new world makes sure that their businesses are respectful to people, to their customers, to their shareholders, to their employees, to their directors, and to themselves.” On governance, Xuereb emphasised accountability. “No risk, whether it’s in a bank or in the way decisions are taken in a board, or whether how gender neutral they are and the decisions that they will make and how customer respectful they’re going to be in the policy-making, are all ingredients that ensure that businesses thrive.”
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Family businesses and governance challenges
Family enterprises remain the backbone of Malta’s economy. “Family businesses in Malta are pretty much the basis of our economy,” Xuereb said. Yet balancing emotional ties with corporate governance can be difficult.
“It’s sometimes hard to distinguish between the emotional relationship of a family with the business relationship that partners would normally have,” he explained. “The distinction between the boardroom table and the family dining table – it’s not easy to realise that these two tables should be different.”
A solution, he suggested, lies in blending family ownership with external experience. “Family members are surrounded by well-meaning non-family directors, [who] instil a form of governance to ensure that they’re able to grow as they were probably envisioned to do so.”
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Vision 2050: Malta’s North Star
MCESD plays a key role in guiding national strategy. “The consultative council that I chair provides advice and consultancy to the government and to the cabinet. Literally, that is the role that MCESD plays,” Xuereb said. In recent years, the council recognised the need for a unifying vision. “We realised that there was a need for a North Star for this country,” he said. The resulting Vision 2050 focuses on “sustainability, competitiveness, and authenticity”.
“ESG, the environmental part, the planetary boundaries side, and the need to ensure that wellbeing through the social dimension is at the centre of what we do, but surrounded by the right governance structures, are fundamental to us to make the next move,” he explained.
The twin and triple transitions. Xuereb described the current transformation as unprecedented. “ESG is all about the identification of risk as we transition into a more competitive, more productive country. The twin transition, the digital and the green transition, is the foundation stone. I would dare add the third, which is the skill transition.”
“The rate we envisage will be very fast; it’ll be scary fast,” he warned. “3D printing, AI, and what all these technologies will do [will] enable the digital and the green transition but also enable us to become more human.”
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Ensuring no one is left behind
With rapid change comes social risk. “It’ll be harder for the elder generation and even more so for the elderly in our society,” Xuereb cautioned. “There is really a risk in leaving people behind.”
He called for “a proper plan for upskilling and reskilling our current workforce” and greater clarity on “what skills our children are meant to have in the industries of the future, probably industries that have not yet been invented.”
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Collaboration and innovation
For David Xuereb, collaboration is essential. “In any future digital AI-driven and green-driven future, the most important thing that every human can do or should be trained to do is to collaborate.” This applies to businesses and society alike: “We see businesses in competition today collaborating. The banks are collaborating in Malta as they transition away from the risks I mentioned earlier.” Innovation, he added, is not optional: “Without innovation, we as a country will be left behind. Not the people, the whole country.” Xuereb insisted that leaders must create space for all generations to contribute: “It’s not going to come from the top down. It must be a collaborative environment where people of various skills and people of various age groups work together.” “Collaboration and the engagement of future generations in that collaborative effort are going to be the fulcrum, the foundation of true and successful leadership,” he concluded.
