Last week's contribution focused on the necessity of Vision 2015, which necessity arises out of the fact that as a result of the economic recession that has gripped the international economy in the last two years, Malta will need to rethink its economic model.
Unless we have a vision spanning the next five years and beyond, our economy risks becoming archaic and irrelevant within the international scenario, with grave consequences on our society. Once we accept this fact of life, we would need to start understanding how we can transform Vision 2015 into a reality.
The government's consultants on this project, AngelouEconomics, have developed a process of how this can be achieved. They started off with identifying those sectors that have growth potential. Then they narrowed their focus on those sectors that are strong and present in our country. The third stage of the process is to identify the factors that Malta can boast of and which create a competitive advantage for such sectors. The final stage is to establish whether such sectors meet the objectives of Malta.
In this methodology there is the recognition that it is not Malta which needs to be competitive but the businesses that operate here. What we can do as a country is create a framework and the environment which allows these businesses to be competitive. Competitiveness has been an issue in this country for quite a while as various people have sought to give their own meaning to the word, using some methodology imported from abroad. I have always been sceptical of these models as they are based on economies that are probably very dissimilar to ours. If one were to listen to these competitiveness experts, one would really start to wonder why businesses locate their operations in Malta. Yet they do and they do it for a reason - they manage to add value to the business.
AngelouEconomics developed what it called a set of national assets and which are seen as being contributors to the competitiveness of businesses operating in Malta.
These are the strategic location, the quality of life, the skilled English speaking workforce, labour costs, agility and adaptability.
Four of these six factors are fairly well known. They are the result of specific policies that have sought to maximise the benefits of our location and the improvement of the way we live through EU membership and have sought to upgrade constantly the quality of our workforce through investment in education and training. However, there are two factors, namely agility and adaptability, which are worth emphasising as they are the result of our small size.
AngelouEconomics also identified a number of challenges that need to be addressed.
These are a lower than average number of persons who go into further education at the end of compulsory schooling, limited participation of women in the labour force, the projected increase in the number of people reaching retirement age in 10 years' time, inadequate connectivity between education and business, and the Mepa's permitting functions. It is important to note that four out of five key challenges deal with our only natural resource - human resources.
Thus the very fundamental concept of Vision 2015 - which is the quest for new economic development opportunities based on Malta's unique assets towards higher value economic growth, job creation and wealth creation - is threatened unless we address the human resources issue in this country. Indeed, we need to accept that the realisation of Vision 2015 depends heavily on the competitiveness of businesses and therefore it is an issue that needs to be taken seriously. This means that financial resources need to be diverted to address the challenges that have been identified.
Unless we own Vision 2015 as a country, it will be difficult to achieve consensus on the resources that need to be allocated for its realisation. This is not a chicken and egg situation. One can easily identify the cause and effect. We need to dedicate resources that will improve the competitiveness of businesses operating in Malta, which in turn will bring in further investment, which in turn will mean the realisation of Vision 2015.