Excellence must become the hallmark of Malta’s businesses and enterprises, irrespective of the economic sector they are operating in. At the national level, an emphasis on quality is to be driven by all social partners, who together must inculcate a culture of excellence across the entire population:

This is recommendation 16 of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry’s Economic Vision 2014-2020.

We all appreciate that we are competing in a global village which is increasingly defined by excellence and quality. Our Economic Vision document expressly reminds us that “mediocrity and substandards are ruthlessly and damagingly exposed through the relentless use of social media”.

Business leaders must partner with the government and civil society to instill a culture where the current ‘good enough’ attitude is replaced by ‘nothing but the best’ – whether this relates to the products that are manufactured in Malta, to the professional services provided, to simple courtesy and good manners towards each other and towards the tourists who visit our shores.

We firmly believe that eradicating the ‘anything goes’ mentality would go a long way in the country’s competitiveness, as it would make our country more attractive to tourists and potential investors. It is clear that, in a resource-hungry nation like Malta, the quality and approach expressed by our people assumes higher importance. Put differently, quality in the goods and services we produce is what brings in business.

We speak about a collective effort because we are more than aware that changing a country’s attitude is not anyone’s sole responsibility. It is undoubtedly a journey, certainly not brought about solely by one-off, very rare statements by the powers that be, although these messages should not be underestimated. As stated in the recommendation, this must be a collective effort, to be driven by all social partners.

The social partners must work towards reversing the trend through which we easily tend to legitimise the reason for this attitude as somewhat natural to the ‘Mediterranean culture’. Of course, there is some truth in this and, if not taken too far, an element of attractiveness in the Mediterranean culture.

As hinted above, our Vision lists a number of recommendations that promote the idea of Malta becoming a “high-quality economy”. In this regard, a process of developing cross-institutional excellence in both the private and the public sector is necessary.

Business and enterprise should be supported by institutions to transform themselves through the implementation of international standards and accreditation to improve the quality and standard of the goods and services they provide. We were pleased to note that, in this regard, Malta Enterprise recently introduced a scheme called ‘Certify’, intended to do just that.

A culture of excellence and a culture of appreciation go hand in hand

We look forward to further progress in this regard, such as initiatives rewarding firms that invest in upgrading quality and achieve high value-added.

We also look forward to more quality service charters published by public sector entities to ensure the quality and timeliness of the service they provide to the citizen and/or entrepreneur and towards a marked shift in the criterion for selection, from that mainly of price to quality, and a track record where the government will unequivocally demonstrate that achieving ‘quality and high value added’ positively pays.

We understand that plans are at hand with regard to this latter recommendation.

We firmly believe that inculcating a culture of excellence will lead to a culture of appreciation.

The culture of appreciation is almost non-existent in Malta. We do not truly appreciate the value of free education, stipends at post-secondary and tertiary level, free healthcare, free medicine for chronic illnesses, to mention a few.

These have been around for so many years that we now take them somewhat for granted. There is nothing wrong with receiving these services without payment, particularly if the country can afford it. We must, however, be constantly reminded that there is a real cost for these ‘free’ services.

Let us take the free medicine and free healthcare as the perfect examples. At the outset I must state that I am in no way advocating the introduction of payment for medicine or healthcare. I repeat, lest someone misquotes me (I sincerely hope that no one does so for sheer populism), I am in no way advocating the introduction of payment for medicine or healthcare.

What I am calling for is better awareness of the current system. This should result in an increased appreciation of its values and limitations by the public that could, in turn, spearhead much needed changes to ensure better welfare of patients and users of the system.

One good way is to start making the patient aware of the cost of such services, as only awareness will promote appreciation. It would be a pity if this suggestion is not taken up because of political ramifications. Both parties surely acknowledge the importance of this and should rise above taking political mileage from its adoption.

A culture of excellence and a culture of appreciation go hand in hand. Both are prerequisites for a fast-developing nation such as ours.

Anton Borg is president of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.

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