Webinar organised by the Gozo Business Chamber, in collaboration with Microsoft Malta, and Bank of Valletta
In its Communication on its proposals related to the EU recovery package on the 27th May, the European Commission highlighted that “our generational challenges – the green and digital transitions – are even more important now than before the crisis started”(2020, p.2). The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the necessity for businesses to shift their business model to a digital one.
Digitalisation is seen as a key pillar for economic revival for all economies across the world. However, the strategic role of technology needs to be appreciated. This applies to everyone, from governments, to businesses, and citizens. In the case of most businesses, the shift to digital platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic has been an important component of their survival during this period. Nonetheless in order to reap the long-term benefits of digitalisation there need to be a shift from technology being simply considered an enabler to it becoming a “core and central tenant of our society and economy” (Fabri – Fenech, 2020).
On the 3rd July 2020, the GBC organized a webinar tackling these aspects ‘Digitalisation and Businesses: A Post COVID-19 scenario’. The webinar examined the challenges for businesses in this scenario and possible solutions, both from a payments and operational perspective. The main speakers for the webinar were Tonia Naudi, Head Multi – Channel & Payments Business, Electronic Banking Services (Bank of Valletta), and Paris P. Savva, Territory Channel Manager for Microsoft, SMB (Cyprus – Malta).
In introducing the webinar Daniel Borg CEO of the Gozo Business Chamber highlighted how “all of us had to surrender some of our certainties during this period after these were tested against a new reality which none of us expected.”
In his intervention Joseph Borg, President of the GBC highlighted how: “Together with the renewable energy sector we have earmarked Digitalization as one of the pillars of a new economy for the island of Gozo.”
Tonia Naudi, spoke about the Bank’s efforts in the area of digitalisation. During her presentation she explained the various features of BOV’s online banking platforms (internet and mobile banking) both from a customer and business perspective. She highlighted how many people in Malta still use cheques to make payments. In fact cheque usage is 10 times higher than the average in the EU.
Paris P. Savva provided an insight on how the world of work was changing post COVID-19 explaining the functionalities available through the various Microsoft tools and how can these best be used to obtain the maximum results.
You can download the presentations and interventions from here:
