‘Foreign brand managers needed help fix Malta’s reputation’ – Chamber president

Foreign brand managers are needed to help identify and fix Malta’s reputation problems, the President of the Chamber of Commerce, David Xuereb, said on Indepth.

Interviewed by The Malta Independent Media Consultant Rachel Attard, Xuereb spoke about the need to improve Malta’s standing abroad and also went into detail about the good governance proposals put forward by the Chamber.

One recommendation from the manifesto was to “start rebuilding Malta’s reputation on an international level by introducing reforms first, not the other way around.”

Xuereb said that in order to repair a brand, Malta’s brand in this case, “you must identify the brand, have people help you – foreigners who specialise in the field – and work as one cohesive Maltese team.”

For this to happen, the chamber is in the process of setting up ‘Brand Malta, “a thematic committee consisting of people within the field of commerce which will come up with ideas on how to develop Brand Malta in a way that will both correct our current situation and regenerate Malta’s reputation to where it was before all this happened.”

Xuereb explained that this committee will require the help of the government, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Maltese embassies. “We require foreign brand managers to understand the damage and see how we can fix it, not through the use of words and posters but by showing that we are making use of the right practices, practices that were introduced through the corrections we made and expose them in the best way possible – well enough to overcome the bad reputation that has been spread across the world in the past months.”