China's rise and Malta's opportunities

I would like to echo Victor Paul Borg's China's Rise And Malta's Opportunities (February 23).

China is the world's fastest growing market. Foreign travel is not yet within everybody's reach. But China has a population of 1.34 billion and over 50 million Chinese nationals travel outside China, Hong Kong and Macao. Despite global problems, the numbers of Chinese tourists is expected to continue increasing.

The air fare to Europe represents a formidable hurdle and those who can afford to travel tend to have appreciable spending power. Our experience is that most Chinese visitors are four or five star tourists who participate in as many organised excursions as the duration of their visit allows.

My company receives many enquiries from Chinese tour operators who wish to incorporate a three to four night stop in Malta in a European tour. As stated by Mr Borg, the major problem is the visa. The problematic aspects of visa issue are understood but millions of Chinese visitors manage to get a Schenghen visa when they enter Europe via Frankfurt, Paris or Rome. We do not need millions but with the expected downturn in the European tourist numbers, we would welcome a healthy supply from a new source.

When a visa is available via Malta, we get the business. It is understood that the government is working towards a solution but time is against us. We are only one potential destination in Europe and competing destinations are targeting this market. For example, Chinese tourism represents the largest growth figures for Barcelona.

As Mr Borg states, many Chinese people know about Malta. Malta has a special place in Chinese minds and hearts not only because of history. Malta is very appreciative of Chinese culture - for example, the Terracotta Warriors exhibition and Chinese food. Malta is one of the few European countries that does not exhibit overt or latent racism versus Chinese people. In fact, despite the sizeable resident Chinese population, problems are rare and the Chinese community manages to integrate successfully. Chinese people genuinely feel welcome in Malta.

This aspect has helped motivate business for sister companies within our group. The advantages Malta has - EU, Schenghen, eurozone and Arab market penetration - make Malta an interesting partner for China. The recent purchase of Australian patrol boats demonstrates that Malta does not reserve its major contracts exclusively for Europe.

China is becoming increasingly hi-tech. China is shedding the image of a cheap, low-quality producer, especially now that many multinationals subcontract manufacture to China. Cost effective, hi-tech China can be a fearsome competitor but it can be an ultra powerful ally. Malta can represent huge value for China if we can assist in circumventing the covert protectionism that everybody condemns but is inevitable in the current global scenario.

In the current global economic upheaval, Malta can do worse than look at better contacts with China. Recent events emphasise that Hilary Clinton, Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel share this viewpoint. We have the advantage of being too small to be a threat but big enough and ideally positioned to be a European and Arab market access point.

Probably tourism is the easiest and quickest way to improve ties - let alone the important point that this could save many jobs in Malta. It is sincerely hoped that government action in facilitating and speeding up visa issue to bona fide Chinese tourists is accelerated. In the not unlikely event that the European recession is protracted, we need to attract new tourism markets and what better market than a huge country that is worried because its projected 2009 growth is "only" eight per cent?