Recently US President Barack Obama, while referring to further evidence that the worst of the economic recession is winding down, said that his country's future economic prosperity depended on building a new, stronger foundation and recapturing the "spirit of innovation."
He added that, "Innovation has been essential to (US) prosperity in the past, and it will be essential to (US) prosperity in the future." He claimed that innovation will be enhanced by having the best-educated, highest-skilled workers in the world, by having a welfare system that is sustainable by holding the line on costs, by building a clean energy economy and by investing in research and development.
Is any of this applicable to Malta? The answer is a definite yes. However, we need to unleash that confidence in ourselves that so far has not been so evident during this recession. It is not just a perception but a fact that so far the international recession has bitten into our economy far less than it has bitten into economies that have a structure that is similar to ours.
It is a fact and not just a perception that we have managed to contain the growth in unemployment far more successfully than other countries.
It is also a fact that we have managed to achieve this through a micro and well-targeted strategy (that had previously been maligned by some) of providing support to those sectors of the economy where support was really needed, that did not force us to run an unsustainable fiscal deficit. In fact the level of our fiscal deficit is among the lowest in the euro-zone. Yet we seem to doubt whether we can really make it. We tend to waste our time looking for skeletons where they do not exist, while frittering away business opportunities.
One item of news that struck me in recent weeks was the claim made by an international consultant that Malta does not have enough visibility internationally in the field of investment. I believe, and facts can bear this out, that within those sectors that Malta has targeted, Malta's visibility is very high. This has happened in the gaming, financial services, pharmaceutical and yachting sectors, and in the past happened in the light engineering sector.
Our country can never have the visibility of countries such as China, India, Ireland, South Africa, Eastern European countries and so on, the reason being that Malta does not have the absorptive capacity that these countries have. However, our spirit of innovation has generated significant investment in these sectors, in spite of not having significant budgets for advertising.
It was also reported that during a meeting for Maltese ambassadors, the same opinion about the lack of visibility was expressed, ignoring the fact that it is also one of the ambassadors' task to give Malta visibility among foreign investors.
The fact is that one very significant investment that we have had in recent years from Spain happened because the then Malta Development Corporation teamed up with the Maltese ambassador in that country at the time and together made a convincing presentation to the investor. This happened thanks to the spirit of innovation of the persons concerned.
We now need to apply ourselves in the same manner to maintain the investment that we have and to generate new investment. In this regard it is important to mention the funds that have been made available to the private sector by government through Malta Enterprise and the Malta Tourism Authority, with the objective of encouraging innovation. Funds have been made and continue to be made available to develop innovative marketing techniques, to develop markets overseas, to develop innovative goods and services. The Employment and Training Corporation is making funds available to support training activities and new employment.
This is indeed a challenge to the private sector, which it should seek to exploit fully. However, businesses need to recapture the spirit of innovation and the belief in themselves that they can make it. Maybe we should take courage from the fact that the Maltese generally feel that that our economy is in a better shape than the other economies in the EU or the world economy.