The topic of business ethics rears up its head every so often. This week the Faculty of Theology and The Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy of the University of Malta launched a Master's programme in business ethics, which in my opinion warrants our attention.

Governments around the world have not yet forgotten the crisis caused by the meltdown in the financial markets, which has often been attributed to unethical behaviour by financial institutions. We are continually faced with the issue of income inequality among countries and within countries.

We need to address the conflict that policy makers often have between economic requirements and social requirements. All these issues and others pose a question of ethics to people in business - to economic decision-makers, to regulators, to legislators, etc. I have often had the opportunity to write about the common good, the impact of illegality and corruption on the economy, the role of government in an economy and similar themes which keep taking us back to a very fundamental question. Is there a set of ethical norms that should be applied to the way an economy operates, especially when the profit motive appears to play such a key role in decision-making?

In my opinion, issues related to corporate governance, social responsibility and business ethics have re-acquired their importance because of the economic crisis, but these issues will retain their importance as countries seek to get out of the crisis and bring their economies to a semblance of normality. It is accepted that the stimulus package that each country has adopted has served well to address the immediate difficulties caused by insolvent financial institutions, the credit crunch and the recession. However, this stimulus package now needs to be phased out in order to maintain an element of sustainability in public finances. This explains why governments and businesses are speaking of the need to implement austerity measures.

Austerity measures are only acceptable if they are perceived to be distributed fairly within the economy. Thus there is the strong expectation that rules that govern financial institutions and other businesses need to become more strict and they need to be applied rigorously. Moreover, the expectation is that these stricter rules are not seen as an ad hoc measure to be forgotten once good economic times return, but as something that becomes the norm. Hence the ethical issues that arise in a number of aspects of social life need to be introduced in the context of business activities.

All too often persons claim that in a business context all actions become legitimate and that ethics have nothing to do with business. In reality we have to become accustomed to the fact that business is a human activity like any other and as such has a relationship with the other human activities.

Within this context, the concepts of accountability, responsibility, governance, ethical behaviour and the common good have acquired increased importance and this importance is not expected to diminish over time.

Malta is not excluded from this discussion. We too will have to face the challenges of austerity within firms and in fiscal policy. Students of economics will tell you that the basic economic problem is the allocation of scarce resources. Today we are probably experiencing this economic problem more than ever before; but the set of rules according to which these scarce resources will need to be allocated should be guided by ethical choices. It is within this context that the Master's programme on business ethics launched by the University of Malta appears to be so appropriate.