Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s controversial former communications chief, was spot on when he told an EY conference in Malta on Wednesday that Malta had a good image, but not a powerful one.
Mr Campbell said it was clear that Malta was not known well enough abroad and many people associated the country with a sun and sea vacation spot.
He said Malta lacked a consistent strong brand, and while pointing out that the country had many positive characteristics, stressed that more effort was needed to create a clear, strong image of what Malta represents.
There is no doubt that Malta has come a long way since 1987 when the country broke with the Dom Mintoff era once and for all. Business-friendly policies were introduced, the rule of law was strengthened, Malta liberalised and modernised its economy, our foreign policy was reorientated towards the free world and Malta became an EU member.
However, it is obvious that the country cannot sit on its laurels and expect business and investment to flow in just because we are an EU member state (which undoubtedly helps).
As Mr Campbell pointed out, we need to ask the right questions about our role in the world and to have a single, strong brand strategy to market itself abroad.
Are we mainly a tourist destination? Are we a financial services and iGaming centre? A logistics hub? All these elements, together with our fine weather, lifestyle, history, culture, political stability and the fact we are English speaking need to be brought together in a master brand.
As much as we would like to think otherwise, there is no doubt that Malta is little known outside Europe, and this is a great hindrance to attracting investment from the wider world.
Economy Minister Chris Cardona told Times of Malta a day after the conference that non-European investors “don’t even know we are an island in the Mediterranean”. The minister had told the conference that Malta lacked visibility among major foreign investors.
Dr Cardona also said that a concerted effort to market Malta would help put the country on the map.
He highlighted that work was under way for the development of Brand Malta – a project which had long been shelved by the previous administration – which would be marketed by a single focal point and not by different government entities as is the case today.
While the ‘Brand Malta’ concept is positive it is essential that all the government agencies responsible for promoting Malta think along the same lines. It is therefore of some concern that Mario Vella, the chairman of Malta Enterprise – responsible for attracting foreign direct investment into Malta – seemed to have disagreed with Dr Cardona’s proposal at the conference to have a single image to heighten the island’s profile abroad. Hopefully, Dr Vella will be convinced by his minister of the benefits of such a strategy.
Parallel to rebranding Malta, there must be a sustained effort at improving what Malta has to offer.
It is no use having a superb marketing campaign unless we have a first-class infrastructure, an efficient public transport system, a reliable electricity supply, a modern road network, an excellent civil service, good airline connections, high environmental standards and as little red tape as possible.
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said Malta could be to the Mediterranean what Dubai is to the Gulf and what Singapore is to Asia. One should only hope it is not just our many tower cranes which draws parallels with the Emirate.
While we should applaud a government which aims high to entice business it will take some time before we have the advanced infrastructure and business-friendliness of both Singapore and Dubai.