Former tourism minister seeking corporate image for Malta

Former Tourism Minister Michael Refalo has taken the initiative to bring a number of state and private companies together to work on promoting a corporate image for Malta.

"Despite Malta's attractiveness to prospective investors, visitors, property buyers and the hard earned reputation in the financial, shipping, aircraft maintenance, pharmaceutical, i-gaming and high-tech manufacturing fields, little is known about our islands beyond their shores," Dr Refalo, recently Malta's High Commissioner to London, said.

A chance meeting in London with an executive of IPSOS-MORI - the polling organization - led to a survey of opinion formers, including news editors of national UK newspapers, specialist magazines, TV and radio stations about their perception of Malta.

"I was not in the least surprised that the British media is nearly as uninformed about Malta as the British public. Contacts with colleagues in other European capitals confirmed this view," Dr Refalo said.

After discussing the survey results with the chairman of The Communication Group it was clear that urgent remedial action to project a clear, defined image of Malta, what the country stands for and offers, was of the essence.

Dr Refalo said that although this was not a government initiative, he had discussed the project with Prime Minister Gonzi and set about forming a public-private partnership to bring it to fruition. In October last year after recruiting the support of practically every organization he approached and garnering commitments for funding, agreement was reached with The Communications Group to act as consultants.

A consultancy team visited Malta last January, undertook field research and held meetings with all 18 members of the public-private partnership.

The Communications Group had now finalized the report and will present its finding later this week.

The public-private partnership is composed of the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry, the Federation of English Language Teaching Organizations Malta -(FELTOM), the Federation of Estate Agents, the Federation of Tourism and Travel Agents (FATTA), Finance Malta, the Gozo Business Chamber, the Institute of Financial Services Practitioners, The Lotteries and Gaming Authority, Malta Enterprise, the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA), Malta International Airport (MIA), the Malta Stock Exchange, the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA), the Rent-a-car Association (RACA), Smart City Malta, Transport Malta and VISET.