World Class Business district

Perhaps the first impression one might have of a world-class business district, is to fill a country as much as possible with multinationals, banks with an international presence and the like. Although foreign businesses enrich our economic milieu, I pref

This can be achieved by the expedience to enter into a market with lowest costs possible. Without facilitating market entrance, a country cannot call itself a friendly business destination.

Unfortunately one glance at the international business and economic indicators classifies Malta as one of the hardest places to start a business in Europe chiefly because of excessive regulatory barriers, in spite of the government’s claim for being in favour of businesses. Couple this with the size of our island and one can only be surprised that there is a private sector in Malta. When one looks at Gozo, where the situation is even worse for the public sector is larger than the private sector, thus making it impossible for Gozo to become fiscally autonomous. Malta’s insularity puts us in a more difficult position, and when one takes into consideration larger countries with friendlier business environments, the road to change is far but not unreachable.

Presently the situation is that the government acts as doing the private sector a favour whenever business incentives are given to a segment of his choosing while dishing a myriad of laws on the citizens all year round without vetting whether the laws promulgated adhere to Human Rights provisions. The ability to earn a living and to start a business of one’s choosing should be a right of every man and woman and not a prerogative of the state. This government, which has always favoured its group's interests, does not share this view.

This is seen when the prime minister speaks of pro-business policies but uses the anti-business role models, the economic minister’s rhetoric emphasis on controls seems to harken back to the old socialist way of state control, most likely believing that everything besides the government is bad while their stipends are paid by the people. The reality is that a political class that never had a real job with a private enterprise or never created a real job do not have any clue of what a practical business comprises and perhaps this is where the grave disadvantage of our poor system lies. History has thought us that the inverse is what works.

In simple terms, the PN vision, our vision is to develop platforms for the establishment of Malta as a location of choice for cross-border funding and capital providing a portfolio of specialised services. This vibrant mix of highly innovative SMEs and global multi-national companies will morph our industry into a thriving ecosystem, enabling it to subsequently attract and engage the global mid-sized players, which could eventually constitute the population of our business district. In all this, Gozo features with a prominent role, where its economy will be based on specialised clusters that would override insularity and lack of opportunities.

In order to anchor our SMEs in the global market, a Nationalist government shall pursue initiatives to attract multi-national companies to partner with local SMEs by incentivising them to jointly design products and services intended for a global outreach. Malta will become a center of attraction and a global source of innovation. Having intellectual property, research and development, transforming our local enterprise in a highly competitive environment.

Change has to come from the political and economical side along with a revaluation of our legal tradition. The market has adequate mechanisms of supply and demand with the consumer being the penultimate decider. Perhaps what economic engineers fail to realise is that business is organic. Without an organic growth other businesses cannot operate. Nobody can cherry pick the winners of an economy just as the financial meltdown was not predicted. The next ten years will usher a new wave of technologies affecting every segment of our lives including the way laws are made and the judiciary. I believe that it will compensate for the islands’ insularity. It will be wise not to oppose the market if we do not want to stay behind.

In conclusion, our country does not afford another five years of government with no vision for our future and not able to create new sectors for our economy. The Document ‘Economy for the People’ leads to bettering the economic vision for this country and the Nationalist Party in government can implement this vision that ensures that everyone benefits from the good economic stature of the country and have Malta and Gozo as a World Business District.

The ability to earn a living and to start a business of one’s choosing should be a right of every man and woman and not a prerogative of the state.