Malta Inc. with a social conscience

Many Maltese - politicians included - are in two minds as to what they really mean by a competitive Malta.

Some argue that we are not competitive enough. Others are complacent enough to congratulate themselves that we have not slipped further down the ladder. Still others pride themselves that we are doing so well that we have even surpassed Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Greece and Bulgaria at a time when Italy now only stands four countries ahead of us.

To my mind the core issue is that we need to develop a Malta Inc. mentality without sacrificing our social conscience or safety net - obviously without leaving any room for benefit fraud or abuse.

If we really want to get our priorities right we need to constantly carry out SWOT analyses of our own country's performance without the need for others to do so. Such reports cannot be ignored but they must merely serve as a corollary.

For the best result-oriented performance we need to learn to build on our strengths and address our weaknesses. The faster the better. Particularly since nobody owes us a living and the concept of free lunches has long been thrown out of the window.

The biggest problem I have with our disadvantages is that they have been sticking out like sore thumbs for ages. Take the burden of government regulations, for example. Or else the quality of electricity supply and roads; the availability of research and training services; female participation in the labour force; capacity for innovation; quality of scientific research institutions; company spending on R&D; university-industry collaboration in R&D and availability of scientists and engineers.

This does not mean that the advantages do not surpass by far the disadvantages but if we want to succeed we must look ahead rather than continue living on past glories.

It is worrying that even access to financing and a poor work ethic in the national labour force are now featuring prominently too.

We also have to distinguish between problems that the corporate sector has failed to address seriously and others that are home grown, particularly through government induced measures and costs.

When I hear and read articles by ministers patting themselves on the back for what has been achieved or rather retained, then I become even more than ever convinced that this is the best recipe for perpetrating the status quo and getting ourselves ossified in the process.

The Ernst & Young Malta Attractiveness Survey for 2009 is a must reader for every decision maker, business leader, opinion writer and yes of course... politician - seasoned, budding or even retired. It is not often that a survey brings together the views of top executives of 101 foreign-owned companies that are present in Malta.

One might argue that the survey is based on perceptions but my first visit to the United States had thought me that perception is often perceived as being more real than reality. As the surveying company's Managing Partner stated in his introduction, perceptions have a strong bearing on decision-making.

Apart from the inevitable and expected call for a reduction of utility rates, I find much sense in the suggestions for the promotion of improved environmental performance in industry as much as I welcome the call for provision of assistance through a one day per week training to employees provided the company invests further. Equally important, particularly in view of the existing crisis, is the suggestion that the government should pay contractors promptly since the latter are also customers of FDIs and owe them money.

The speeding up of absorption of EU funds is of the essence particularly now that we are past the halfway mark of our first decade in the EU.

Although much hype is often wasted on Gozo, when reality bites we face a different story. The same as we are likely to do regarding the famous Eco Island tag. Only eight per cent of respondents had already carried out activities in Gozo or had considered investing in the sister island. Nothing less than 31 reasons were listed - rightly or wrongly - for not investing in Gozo.

While the reasons for positive perceptions are encouraging, those for negative perceptions need to be analysed, studied and addressed frontally and even aggressively in the most pro-active manner possible.

Perhaps in the near future someone just as technical and professional will or should carry out an in-depth study on our actual potential to develop a Green Economy. I very much fear that we are still far from getting there since as far as I know there is hardly a road map in existence in this regard.