Gozo Business Chamber working to set up R&D cluster

The Gozo Business Chamber is actively working to set up a Synaptic ICT Research and Development Cluster of Excellence with international potential in the sister island.

Chamber president Joe Grech told a conference on Vision for the Development of the Island Region of Gozo this week: "The Gozo Business Chamber is leading the way by responding to the Prime Minister's Smart Nation Initiative and the Mita (Malta Information Technology Agency Ltd) vision statement that identifies ICT research and development as a future platform for economic development in Gozo.

"Synaptic Research Laboratories has now secured the interest and support of the government agency EuroMedITI, which recently supported the establishment of a major international marine software cluster of excellence in Malta. To carry these negotiations forward, The GBC has established an ICT sub-committee specifically to focus on advancing the Synaptic ICT Cluster of Excellence proposal in Gozo."

The initiative has also found support among Synaptic Laboratories' partners, including the Swiss financial company, The Argentum Group, and Simpson Research Limited in Scotland.

Mr Grech called on the government and the opposition to transform Gozo into a flourishing eco-island which experiences job mobility and to reverse the brain drain the island is seeing. He said it is high time to assess whether the three-pronged structure of Regional Governance for Gozo, proposed in The Socio-economic Plan For The Island Of Gozo 2005-2010, should be revisited.

Strategies need to be proposed to enhance the distinctive character of Gozo, leading to the island's sustainable development, and to establish an economy based on distinctiveness, with a potential to develop separately from Malta's. Gozo's economy would make a marked contribution to the overall development of the Maltese economy in this way.

In a far-ranging presentation, Mr Grech called for national commissions and official statistics to include separate figures for Gozo that reflect its realities; for synergies between education, business and government development agencies in Gozo to formulate an educational policy for future skills; and for time frames to be established for the fulfilment of the measures proposed at the conference, and for all future projects in Gozo.

The chamber intends to submit a copy of the proposals that emerged from the conference to the Finance Minister for inclusion in the forthcoming budget.