Complaints that local roads have deteriorated to Third World standards have been echoed by The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010.
Although Malta's overall position is unchanged from the previous year at 52 in the global competiveness rankings of 133 world economies, a closer look reveals the island has slipped to 97 from 75 in ranking on the quality of roads, putting it behind crisis-hit Zimbabwe.
Malta also slipped to 67 from 59 in the quality of electricity supply rankings: three places behind the Ivory Coast, which is emerging from a bloody civil war.
The annual report was published recently by the World Economic Forum and aims to assess a broad range of factors affecting an economy's business climate before ranking them in order of competitiveness.
Quality of roads and electricity supply are assessed under the infrastructure section.
However, Malta's reduced rankings in the quality of roads and electricity supply are a consequence, rather than an affirmation of local perceptions. These indicators are assessed through a respected Executive Opinion Survey, meaning selected business executives in each country are asked to assess their country's business climate.
On roads, the business executives were asked: "How would you assess roads in your country?" using a scale of one (extremely underdeveloped) to seven (extensive and efficient by international standards). Maltese respondents gave their island a score of 2.9 overall, while the Zimbabweans gave their county a score of 3.2. Even the roads of countries like Bangladesh, Madagascar and Malawi are perceived to be better than Malta's.
The sharp drop in Malta's road rankings could also be indicative that the hype in road investment following EU accession in 2004 has worn off.
It seems some people are so disillusioned with local roads they are looking for assistance from the Holy See.
When news of the Pope's expected visit to Malta broke on timesofmalta.com yesterday, the first comment read: "Good news! Let's start repairing the roads. Maybe by then the stretch where the Pope will be driven through will be completed!"
Overall rankings to the survey were calculated from both publicly available hard data and the responses to the survey, conducted by the World Economic Forum, together with its partner institutes in each country.