Many times we Maltese feel blighted because of the smallness of our country and the fact we are surrounded by the sea, the smallness of our population etc.
Today, the developments in technology have removed many of the disadvantages of our insularity. Planes have made the sea as a barrier meaningless. Radio and telephony have removed the rest of the insularity. Today a person can be living in the remotest village in Gozo and still be in constant contact with his family or his business elsewhere on the continent or in the world.
The more that technology advances, the more insularity is pushed back.
Today however there are even more advantages than just getting the tail-end of technological progress. Malta, with its small size and its advanced technological infrastructure can become a crucible for experimentation on future mass technologies before they are launched in bigger countries.
In fact, Malta has already been this crucible.
There has been some talk in recent times of Malta becoming a wifi island. This is technically possible and a fair amount of it is already in place. One can see people walking around with a smart phone in their hands and connecting all the time with their family and friends as if they were sitting in an office or in their house next to a wifi router.
Then you go to far more advanced countries and you find they do not even dream of this level of connectivity everywhere and at all times.
International companies who are already here in Malta many times say one reason why they are present in Malta is because Malta is a small country but with advanced technological infrastructure and the companies can experiment with the technologies of the future before they launch internationally.
These advantages which we must turn to our benefit do not reside just in technological advances, even though in this respect we still have some way to go. Malta can be a crucible of future developments in many other areas, such as, for example, in the financial services sector.
To give but one example, the world is moving to a cashless future where we will be able to pay for our purchases by just pointing a mobile phone (one variant also has pointing a smart phone eg at a refrigerator and it works out what you need to stock up on).
Malta therefore must market itself as the technologically advanced island where the future is already existing. To do so, it must ensure that the infrastructure is in place and is efficient. We are now light years from the era when our mobile phones had a limited range and when Malta and Gozo were separated by the sea and connected with just one submarine cable. It is the technological advances we have made that has put Malta at the forefront. Take for instance the gaming industry: it would not be here if Malta did not have the right infrastructure.
One other essential element for Malta to position itself as the crucible of technological advances is to adapt the legislative framework so that this helps, rather than hinders, the future as we can glimpse it today.