PM underlines importance of research and development

The government was aware of the need to benchmark and coordinate Malta's policies in research and development with those of the EU acceding and member states while ensuring that its national concerns and priorities were not compromised, Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami said yesterday.

He said the government was also aware that the achievement of its economic and social goals depended, to a significant degree, on a sustained programme of research and development.

He was delivering the inaugural speech at the two-day fourth eForesee International Conference, hosted by the Malta Council for Science and Technology, at the Hotel Corinthia San Gorg.

The conference is discussing the role of Foresight in implementing the EU Wider Neighbourhood Policy and in the structuring of a Euro-Mediterranean Research and Innovation Area.

Foresight is a policy tool that can help organisations and networks develop visions of the future that would guide their decision-making and help them exploit programmes for their long-term benefit.

The Wider Neighbourhood Policy was launched in March by the European Commission, acknowledging the importance of relations between EU member states and their immediate neighbours.

The conference is aimed at policy-makers from the government, academia and industry, strategists, intermediaries and other organisations in Mediterranean systems of innovation.

It is the final conference of the eForesee Project, an EU sponsored project under the fifth Financial Protocol Strata Programme. The Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) is the Malta partner within the project.

Dr Fenech Adami said the successful development of the European Research and Innovation Area depended on the extent to which the related visions and policies of the member and acceding states could converge.

Investing wisely in research and innovation had become a critical preoccupation for governments worldwide, Dr Fenech Adami said.

In Europe, efforts were being made to develop realistic strategies with the aim of meeting the Lisbon target of three per cent Gross Domestic Product spent on research and development by 2010.

Foresight is increasingly being recognised as an effective tool for encouraging wider stakeholder involvement at both a local and regional level. In Malta, it could help bridge the gap between the public and private sectors as well as play an important role in managing the Malta-EU interface.

As a new member of the EU, Malta was keen to encourage the development of more systematic policy approaches such as Foresight to fully exploit the potential of Euro-Mediterranean collaborative futures, the Prime Minister said, mentioning the development of a Euro-Mediterranean Marine Research Area.