I originally wrote this article about three years ago, but have never got round to publishing it. While things have improved in the last three years, one notable example being SmartCity, there is still much to be done to point us in the right direction for a knowledge-based economy.
In 2004, a study by Sir David King, then the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, analysed the scientific productivity of 31 of the world’s 193 countries, using highly quoted research publications as an indicator of the level of innovative research. The 31 countries studied are responsible for 97.5 per cent of the world’s most cited papers. The study, entitled The Scientific Impact of Nations, was published in Nature and quoted in Cordis, the EU’s R&D information magazine. It also notes the political implications of the strong relationship between innovation and national wealth. The author is quoted as saying: “My key point in response to these statistics is that sustainable economic development in highly competitive world markets requires a direct engagement in the generation of knowledge”.
This message is one that Malta must heed, and with some urgency. Recent EU surveys listed Malta at the very bottom of the scale among the EU 25 nations in terms of two very important markers: the percentage of the population with a completed tertiary education and the percentage with science or engineering qualifications (including anything from a technical diploma upwards). Changing these two indicators is an essential move to help Malta break more and more into the intellectual property market and become ever more its own master, by efficiently using its major resource, people.
Changing these indicators should, however, be done in the real terms of lifelong scientific engagement, not as a way of satisfying EU statistics. One example of what I mean is that students are often encouraged to enter post-secondary education by a student grant, when the numbers actually progressing beyond the first year or even the foundation course are much fewer on occasion, especially in some MCAST courses. This shores up our EU targets without really being of much benefit to the nation.
The three important pillars of the Maltese economy are tourism, manufacturing and services industries. While all have their temporal fluctuations as to success and relative weakness, manufacturing in our island stands to continue taking major blows in the near future. With the ever-increasing globalisation of trade, products are being made much more cheaply due to drastically cheaper labour costs in India, Morocco and China, amongst others. While not as cheap, Eastern European countries are also competitors, offering relatively cheaper labour and a higher level of technically qualified and trained personnel, and also being in the EU. The jobs of unskilled labourers are under serious threat (and this has little to do with us joining the EU, whatever people may say). Labour promises much to reverse this threat to jobs. However, a change in government will not result in any miracles in this regard. No local force can change the way the whole world is turning.
While appreciating the over-taxed frustration of Malta’s middle classes, Government must work seriously to minimise the potential hardship of the country’s workers in the short term and ensure that future generations are in a better state to compete for jobs in the world’s markets. Without doubt, the essentials of such a plan are re-training, with direct relevance to immediate employment, innovation in present industries and their off-shoots and, most especially, education and research towards innovation.
Traditional Nationalist supporters who feel it is high time that any non-competitive industry workers (such as at the drydocks) bite the bullet and suffer the consequences of market forces should rein in their cynicism (justified as it may be) and pull together to help strengthen our country’s economy. Serious economic strife in one segment of the population, as a result of increasing job losses, will effect all those who plan to live on our island, through higher social benefits requirements and resulting taxes, the knock-on effects on professional and entertainment services, possible civil unrest and other consequences. Malta’s class divide must be de-politicised and eventually demolished. Benefits cannot come to this country when we are divided in as polar a manner as is presently the case.
Here, I should at least comment that it is genuinely heartening to see positive steps being taken by interested players. The Labour party, through its published Regeneration Plan, is indicating its beliefs in serious investment in competitiveness for Maltese workers and industry. However, comments by its present leader that our university should be primarily a teaching one tend to dampen this positivity in my opinion. Certain union leaders have declared in public, before my own eyes, that research and innovation is important but that we cannot afford to invest anything in stimulating research at present. It is clear that these MCSED members, well intentioned though they are, expect Malta’s economy to jump loops in positive directions without any short-term sacrifices to stimulate such migration.
Government is pushing on with training for employment through the ETC and reviewing our education system as well, thus attempting to move us closer towards the Lisbon Agenda goals. I feel the education system needs to be tackled all the way from the roots to the top of the tree, but more on that later. Of course, the ongoing development of SmartCity is also undoubtedly a move in the right direction in terms of moving us towards a knowledge-based economy.
Unfortunately, some of the Lisbon agenda goals, such as investment in research, appear to be perpetually on the back burner. Although one Lisbon Agenda goal is that one per cent of the GDP (presently Lm10 million) should be invested by Government in research, the present reality is more to the tune of 0.3 million every two years, leaving those of us Maltese scientists interested in innovation in a perpetual state of frustration.
A recent indicator of the knock-on effects of such support or lack of it is seen in the results of the European Research Council’s (ERC) first “Ideas” call in the EU’s research programme FP7. Cyprus, only minimally larger than us, scored the second biggest number of accepted applications of the EU 25, while Malta scored only one such application. Despite this, when accepted calls were listed in relation to support, Malta was way ahead of Cyprus, towards the top – not due to a high application rate but due to such minimal support! Of course, quoting this without adequate explanation can show just how much statistics can outdo damn lies, as the saying goes.
Of course, the reality was that Cyprus ended up with many more funded applications per capita than any other country in the EU 25, while Malta got zilch.
A paradigm shift in mentality is needed regarding our pride in our country, its people and their potential. The “Maltese is poor quality/foreign is best” culture is an out-dated leftover from our colonial days. Those who adhere to this belief, limpet-like, do so to counter their shame for being born Maltese nationals. They may further embellish this disguise through the use of a foreign language (mostly English) to the virtual exclusion of our mother tongue. I have occasionally heard of more extreme inferiority complexes, including the hanging of pictures of the English monarch in the family home.
Unfortunately, a considerable number of such individuals belong to the educated and professional middle classes. With such people in positions of leadership and respect, how can our national mindset ever improve? Like any other nation, the bulk of the economy (and therefore the strength of the nation) rests on the back of the worker, as well as properly targeted investment. America’s pre-eminence in the world today is largely due to its pride and belief in its nation. Similarly, at the peak of the British Empire, Brits were no doubt proud to be British. It is essential that the Maltese start to be proud of being Maltese. It is essential that Maltese authorities and governments start to appreciate local talent in all areas of expertise. It is essential that, in all fields of endeavour, a culture of meritocracy comes to strongly predominate, with the right person being given the right job – all for the sake of making our country the very best it can possibly be. It is sad that Alfred Sant’s stand of not re-ordering the whole civil service according to political bias in 1996 was followed so rapidly by his party’s loss of government in 1998. That was a noble deed that was unfortunately not appreciated.
It is only in this way that we can become a nation rubbing shoulders proudly with a community of 25 other nations and competing strongly on the world’s markets. Those who see our joining the EU as a potential passport out of the country should up and leave. This is no place for those who do not believe in our capability to compete. There is no place for those who like the sunny weather and personal culture but mentally or verbally continue to lambaste our nation, or lament their birthright. Malta has produced umpteen experts and innovators around the world – Sir Alfred Cuschieri (keyhole surgery), Edward Debono (lateral thinking), Frank Zarb (the Nasdaq stock exchange), Sir Temi Zammit (transmission of Deni Rqiq), Brian Schembri (guitar composition and innovation) to name but very few. Many will no doubt comment that most of these sprang to fame in foreign lands. No one can argue with that and, in some cases, this cannot be changed due to the greater opportunities available elsewhere. However, we must make an effort so that any local innovation that can occur in Malta is appreciated and encouraged, not dismissed, as happened to Guglielmo Marconi in Italy with the result that he took his invention of radio to the UK.
Here again, I must therefore emphasise the importance of education. Even Baroness Margaret Thatcher, as the Prime Minister who started the worldwide push to privatisation in the mid-eighties, commented that government must retain some basic responsibilities in running a country, whilst privatising.
Among these she highlighted in particular a basic social safety net, defence and education. Government responsibility for the latter ensures that the workforce of the future is able to compete in the international market. It is a message we need to heed to be able to survive in a world where we are surrounded by more technologically advanced economies to the north and growing ones with more initiative and lower wages to the south and east.
I initially started writing this article during a holiday in Tunisia. I was impressed by the capabilities of waiters, suq traders and taxi drivers to converse adequately with potential customers in four or five languages. This is a far cry from the hoarse “cabby” hurled indiscriminately by certain karozzin drivers towards tourists, independent of their country of origin. Our tourism has moved on from one dominated solely by ex-British servicemen, yet the skills to deal with this changed market place have not infiltrated so far.
Whilst pointing out some of the problems I see as a non-specialist in the fields of economics or social policy, I do not intend to grumble uselessly about the present state of affairs. Nor do I wish to offer solely vacuous rhetoric as to the need for innovation, so I will continue to give some suggestions about how I believe our country can best battle the likely reduction in manufacturing jobs and world market share.
Science is and should be an important part of governance. This year, Sir David King published an article in another major science journal, Science, in which he describes foresight projects looking into possible scenarios dealing with a major area of potential or risk in order to influence both policy and funding decisions made by government. I, and other scientists like myself, have been involved in a number of local equivalents of these foresight projects, but we unfortunately often get the impression that no one is listening. In order to avoid this problem (apparently also suffered by UK scientists, Sir David makes the following comment: “Crucially, each project must be sponsored by a minister from a relevant government department.” Otherwise, to quote from the same article: “There is little point in producing scientific reports if nobody on the political side has committed themselves to listening”.
Innov-Nation 2: Some possible improvements
As stated in the previous half of this article, I believe the changes needed in our nation’s attitudes towards research and innovation can be best encouraged through the three parallel paths of education, re-training and innovation in present industries/establishments. Of course, this can only come about with the associated political support.
Education, in many ways, requires the most essential change of all. In some ways it is the least effective in the immediate short term, but it is the most important pillar for the long-term benefit of our country and its economy. Apart from formal education, I am also including such things as education in parenting to parents, science education and appreciation for the general public, education in enterpreneurship and thinking skills for secondary school and higher education pupils and imparting self esteem and psycho-social skills to primary and pre-school children.
I believe all these are of equivalent and essential priority and will go through each one briefly.
At as early an age as possible, children need to be given a huge bolster in self esteem by the education system to help them deal with overly critical parents and any other obstacle that may be thrown in their life’s path. I believe this may be fostered by the triple pronged approach of modified setting, psychosocial education and physical and other “extracurricular” education.
Psychosocial education, if properly done, should teach children the theory of how they are worth their weight in diamonds, independent of the support or vicious discouragement they may receive from parents and others (I am sure we have all heard the all-too-common “You are good for nothing – unlike Peppa’s son”, etc., etc. – or worse.
“Setting” which to my simple understanding translates as “streaming on a per subject basis” may be developed to allow children to focus on ultra essentials like language and mathematics. On the other hand, apart from these essentials, it may be more relaxed to allow them to choose other subjects based on their own optimum performance – the subjects in which they do best, including music and art. This will show them that they are not bad at everything, as has been the case of the government secondary school students of the past few decades. This self-fulfilling prophecy of a positive rather than a negative nature will markedly stimulate their self-esteem and belief in themselves.
Students who find the essential subjects rather more easy can themselves choose to learn a wider range of topics, thus opening up education to all its myriad possibilities without sidelining anyone.
The fact that setting is already making a strong appearance in our schools is, I believe, a strong trend in the right direction.
Sport, I believe, should be made compulsory for all, both to stimulate the health of the nation’s children – who are in the doldrums of world-beating obesity – but also because sport teaches discipline, and helps develop team-building and self esteem.
Of course all these modifications are only possible by reducing the large amount of nonsense that students studying for their 11+ are forced into today – such as (I have heard this from friends with children of that age) learning what landmarks one would see on a boat trip around the island. And this not for natural interest but for an examinable end point! Church schools, just as much as the government system, need to play their role in stopping this madness.
Parenting skills for parents, possibly included as a requisite part of the Cana courses, should complement this to help prevent parents gruffness with their children that destroys any positivity developed at school.
Thinking skills (a Maltese invention) and entrepreneurship (a Maltese quality – if American and Australian returned immigrants are not inventing), are skills which, through direct teaching, can help enhance our older children’s capacities to shoulder the new burdens and take the new opportunities of the knowledge and service-based economies. Tomorrow’s businesses will depend on how well we guide these youngsters today.
Science education and popularisation is another essential, since it will keep both youngsters and the general public abreast of developments that will not only impinge on the expansion of our economy but on all aspects of our life in an increasingly technological world.
A very high level of English teaching is an essential aspect of participating in a globalised world and cannot be underestimated.
At the more adult levels of education, the two most-important aspects are skills training and short courses with targeted deliverables for updating oneself.
Skills education is an education in practical capabilities and this can involve a whole gamut of options from, basic IT training to vocational training to high level skills training in subjects like ICT, biotech and engineering in various university courses. One point common to all these is the lab facilities necessary for all skills training. This is a necessary, albeit costly, investment that will prepare our youth and the rest of our population for the jobs for which they can compete in a knowledge market. Malta’s major resource is its human potential and this needs to be encouraged.
I believe it is very important not to put all one’s eggs in the same basket. SmartCity and the new ICT faculty are giant and shrewd steps in the right direction, but it is important that they are not the only ones. ICT can be pushed forward rather easily, due to the relatively low cost of the equipment required and the present critical mass. The government and opposition both agree on this development and it essential that this area continues to progress. However, it should be used as a springboard to launch other developments, in the same way that Dubai uses its oil wealth. Let us remember that in a progressively more wired world, dependant on common computer languages, brilliant Maltese computer graphics artists are up against the larger numbers (plausibly cheaper and just as accessible) of those in India and China.
Other areas such as biotech and high skills manufacturing (though more costly to develop) still allow us to benefit from our proximity to Europe (due to the necessary transfer of raw materials and products) while still making optimum use of our adaptability, lower wages, high skills and English language adeptness.
Encouraging the development of such fields is therefore also useful, particularly in the slightly longer term.
The generic pharmaceutical industry is a case in point, where some careful pre-planning can help avoid this being a legal-loophole-based flash-in-the pan. Local pharma companies are churning out generics of drugs not patented in Malta. However, cognisant of this loophole, international pharma now patents most drugs locally. This legal loophole is thus likely to close in the future, causing many in the industry to loose their livelihood. So to prevent this, I suggest the following strategy. Bio-generics – such as insulin and erythropoietin – probably also benefit from the same legal loophole. By courting bio-generics to set up locally, workers from the generics industry will be able to learn the biotech skills needed for such drug production. When the bio-generic loopholes close, the same worker pool can be used to attract contract research and development to Malta, since the skills base is largely similar and our lower wages will do well against our European competitors.
This, along with all other high-tech fields, also needs a pool of skilled graduates in order to help attract high-tech foreign direct investment. Companies will not easily come to Malta unless they can find a pool of skilled professionals to employ. However, such professionals will not remain here without jobs to keep them here. The way of solving this chicken and egg situation is to provide an increased number of academic research posts in universities in Malta and any other local high-tech institutes. By offering better wages, tech companies setting up in Malta will sump off these workers only to re-open places to be filled with upcoming new graduates and thus stimulate more critical mass development in high-tech foreign industry.
Apart from skills training, short course training with a specific target to market is also very beneficial and can be very important in strengthening already existing aspects of the economy in a changing world. MCAST and the University of Malta can both help provide such training.
While in Tunisia, a taxi driver who could converse comfortably in German, French, Arabic, English, Italian and a little Spanish pointed out that he was off on a three- month course in Russian, due to the influx of Russian tourists.
Such targeted short courses have huge potential in enhancing civilians’ livelihoods – and one role of vocational colleges such as MCAST is doubtless to provide such a service.
Another equally important aim for our governments is that of creating jobs in service industries for workers displaced from manufacturing. While the ideal is to retrain such workers – through the ETC or similar organisations – to make them available for high-tech jobs, this will not always be possible, especially for older workers. In these cases, opportunities resulting from expansion in our established service industries are a more likely option.
Tourism is clearly one such opportunity. Many workers can be employed in enhancing the quality of this service. Companies may be started up selling cheap photocopied maps of Valletta that highlight services and sights for walking tourists entering the capital.
Food stores selling a conglomeration of our national foods could be strategically positioned in parts of Valletta, the three cities, Sliema, St Julian’s and Paola (between the Tarxien temples and the Hypogeum). The branding effect of such stores is enormous, but such options have only developed to any extent as part of souvenir shops in Mdina, Gozo and the airport.
A specialised food shop/café for Maltese food could sell pastizzi, fresh Maltese bread, date squares, Maltese liquors, olives, kunserva, qassatat, bigilla, nougat and honey rings, as well as meals such as rabbit stew and octopus, etc., in places of high tourist concentrations. One of the elements that can attract people to a tourist destination is good quality local food. This has the added benefit of being taken home and having a repeated memory-stimulating effect, as well as being offered to friends and family, encouraging repeat business in the tourist industry. Employment in this and other well-thought out additions to our tourist profile are the kind of relatively unskilled jobs that can be used to profitably re-deploy layoffs from the manufacturing industry.
Another area that can be similarly enhanced is the local film and TV industry. For a small country, we have a number of benefits here. A large local TV station market in relation to our size ensures continuity and employment. Good English language skills allow for the transfer of skills from Maltese to English productions and exposure to the foreign film-making industry allows the honing of skills in film services and hopefully ( as we are seeing with Heroes in the Sky) eventually local film production. This mentioned example highlights some of the other benefits available locally, namely high quality and relatively cheap IT animations skills. The production also points towards the right direction that local film and TV making should take – that of diversifying into English language productions targeted for local and eventually also foreign consumption.
The large number of production houses can be encouraged to engage in this new direction by sponsoring the winners of a national competition by supporting them in selling /promoting their wining production abroad. The beneficial effect of the Song for Europe festival on the local singing/musical composition scene is clear, despite the stick the competition receives.
It would be a good idea for the Golden Knight competition for films to have a local only division, supported by culturally-targeted funds and advertised more widely. A local English-language TV competition (possibly for TV-pilots which could then be supported through production as a prize) is another idea. The expansion of this industry can again help employ seamstresses/unemployed staff from clothes factories/other industry in costume production, set production, etc.
A similar competition for advertising slogans and films and productions would again be useful – it is another area where our skills in English, IT and other areas may turn up trumps.
The idea of using competitions in general is extremely useful, in my opinion. A competition is a way of developing a lot of talent for the lowest possible input (the prize) and uses the natural competitive nature of the Maltese (for example, see the effects in street lighting and firework competitions between local councils.)
One idea would be to develop such competitions in science (and possibly other areas such as volunteer work) by local councils and then follow this up with a final televised competition between the respective winners of all local councils in the manner of the Song for Europe festival. I am sure that in this way, local inventors hidden away in garages all across Mata will come out of the woodwork and showcase their talent. This would, I believe, strongly stimulate the uptake of science at grassroots level in Malta.
A lot has been made in advertising terms of “Brand Malta” in recent times. While I totally agree with the idea, it is only as good as our self-esteem and the services/skills we offer. The previously floated idea of “Switzerland in the Mediterranean” holds no water unless we develop such internationally recognised services (and possibly products) as Swiss banking, watches, cheese, chocolate, etc. So the development of key services such as banking, film support and IT are of optimum importance. These will also then help develop other industries (in fact, Swiss Pharma and Biotech is one of the biggest in the world too, nowadays – think team Alinghi – despite the lack of such widespread international recognition).
In all of this, one cannot overestimate the essential role of public broadcasting. I have been told by colleagues in TV that its role should be to educate, inform and entertain. Unfortunately, the balance between these three on the local PBS TV channel seems rather skewed. It is essential not to relegate TVM to a politically balanced, neutral equivalent of the other private channels in the country.
It should have funds to sustain and produce top quality programmes on prime time TV that are important for the nation – not just selling airtime in a short-term view of profitability. Relegating education services to a separate channel with a very tight budget and a very low viewership is not the answer. In this regard, highlighting the life of Maltese heroes –-scientists, musicians, etc. – making Maltese proud to be Maltese should be a top priority. This creates local heroes for our children to look up to.
I will stop my rant here.
I humbly hope that some of these ideas may stimulate discussion and possibly be taken up by the all-important governing party. To quote Sir David King again: “There is an adage that politicians use science the way a drunk uses a lamppost – more for support than for illumination. The lesson of the Foresight programme is that the wisest decisions are made when science is at the very heart of policy: You can govern without the benefit of science, but you cannot
govern well.”