John Huber calls for industry unity to replicate Finance Malta success

Yachting Malta needs to persuade all the stakeholders in the yachting industry to pull on the same rope, its new chairman John Huber told the Times of Malta.

The yachting industry is notoriously fragmented, with various organisations vying rather than cooperating with each other. This is something Mr Huber is determined to tackle head on.

“An authority such as Finance Malta has been so successful because everyone has been pulling on the same rope,” he said.

“In yachting, way too many entities were born and died within a few years. What we need is a cohesive entity.”

The format of Yachting Malta is perhaps not ideal: although it brought together the dynamism and commitment of the Royal Malta Yacht Club and the determination of the government, it excluded numerous other stakeholders that represent value-added activities in the sector that are just as important.

“The public/private partnership (PPP) idea was great but now we need to refine it and to create something tangible,” he said.

“We had too many chiefs, not enough Indians, and no arrows,” he admitted about the original set up of the agency he has taken over.

It won’t be easy: the wide-ranging promises made when it was set up in April 2015 dwindled away with – according to various sources – very little achieved.

“We all had such hopes that there would be one driving force but in reality Yachting Malta has been dormant for the past years,” one source told the Times of Malta.

Although Mr Huber – whose two-year term will soon be put to an AGM for confirmation – has to manoeuvre within the PPP format, he is making a few important changes.

He is currently executive chairman until the post of CEO vacated by Wilfred Buttigieg is filled, a process which is in hand.

He is also sending an important message by moving its offices out of the Yacht Club to a location which will hopefully make more sense in the context of the wider industry.

Source: Times of Malta