The Budget for 2010 mentioned a concept which the opposition has long been harping about in Parliament: the so-called "creative economy".

The Finance Minister, during his speech in Parliament, made a vague commitment to turn our country into a place of excellence for the creative economy by the year 2015 and said that the government will be putting through a packet of financial incentives to promote this sector.

Of course, everyone who believes in Malta's creative potential was glad to hear that, finally, the government is making use of some creativity and has committed itself to the creative economy.

However, those who really know the subject and have a clear vision about it expressed apprehension that the government will do something just for the sake of doing something and will try to give birth to a sector just by, very short-sightedly, throwing fiscal incentives at it. Which is not only wrong but risks aborting the splendid potential that we have to cultivate a creative industry altogether.

So what exactly is the creative economy or the creative industry?

The concept of cultivating "new talents for the new economy" stems from the United Kingdom's Labour government's pledge to provide a fresh new partnership with the UK's creative industries and turn the UK into a Creative Britain and expand apprenticeships in the sector to 5,000 across the country.

This whole revolutionary way of looking at culture and arts as a source of employment and an industry in itself finds its beginning in the 2007 publication Staying Ahead: The Economic Performance of the UK's Creative Industries.

From then onwards, by means of a collective intra-ministerial effort involving no less than six ministers or under secretaries coming from the subjects as technically diverse as education, arts, culture and economy alike, a blueprint for Creative Britain was published on February 22, 2008 aptly called New Talents For The New Economy.

Being myself an avid follower of the creative economy philosophy and the potential that it has to create jobs for those with an artistic talent in them, I flew to London last September to meet the persons who are actually putting this project forward, particularly Alastair Findley, who is heading the project within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport at his office in Cockspur Street, right next to Trafalgar Square.

What the UK is doing right now is light years ahead of the half-baked, superficial promise the Maltese Finance Minister put forward in his Budget. The Creative Britain project individualised a non-exclusive list of 13 activities which, when grouped together, form the so-called "creative industry".

These are advertising, architecture, the art and antiques market, crafts, design, designer fashion, film, interactive leisure software, music, the performing arts, publishing, software and computer services, television and radio.

Once the creative industry players were individualised, the authors of Creative Britain went on to propose eight fundamental pillars on which this creative industry is planned to foster, with 26 factual, crude and obtainable underlying commitments, which cut span across the various ministries, with the financial incentive packet (similar to that heralded by our Finance Minister) being merely one of the 26 commitments.

These pillars focus on the need of giving children a creative education, turning talent into jobs, supporting research and development, helping creative businesses grow and access finance, fostering and protecting intellectual property, supporting the so-called creative (localised) clusters (such as the Nadur Carnival or the Ġħana Bormliża to mention only two Maltese equivalents), promoting Britain as the world's creative hub and keeping the strategy up to date.

I feel that we are still in time to cooperate with Creative Britain and promote a Creative Malta initiative ourselves. If Britain has got talent (as it certainly does), Malta has got its fair share of creative talent. What we lack is the foresight to put forward a concrete plan and implement it.

In my critique to the culture and arts budget in Parliament, I have already suggested that a think-tank formed by members from both sides of the House be convened to draw up this ambitious but much-needed holistic plan, based on hard facts, a great deal of study and forward thinking. I hope that the government, on its part, will accept the idea to work together to really and truly give the Maltese and Gozitan people a blueprint for the initiation of a creative industry in Malta.

If together everything is possible, I'm sure we can put this ambitious project through successfully for the sake of our children, and our children's children.