The latest news is that all is not over and done with regarding the SmartCity project.

But surely, if there is still a glimmer of hope, that’s no thanks to our collective efforts. On the contrary, what has been happening here can be seen as an objective lesson in how to put off any possible foreign direct investment.

Gone are the days when investments came here due to political pressure being exercised, or attracted by tax holidays, free factories and the like. Any potential investor has a multitude of openings and opportunities for his investment and probably a queue this big outside his door.

As has very often been said, Malta’s high quality of life is based on a wage structure, which, while insufficient for our needs, is far ahead of that offered by our competitors, who are hence more competitive than us. So too the lack of affordable land we have here as against the wide open spaces they have everywhere else and so on.

There is much that can attract a potential investor to Malta – its location, its membership in the EU, its long links of friendship with neighbouring countries – but there are also factors that militate against such a decision, some of which, like Malta’s lack of land communication with the continent, just cannot be turned around.

Secondly, in any such decision to invest, there would be a number of factors that have to be taken into consideration, as they make all the difference between success and failure. That calls for delicate negotiations between the parties with both sides eager to find a modus vivendi that can be turned into a win-win situation for all.

But to reach this agreement, there has to be basic trust between the parties, an understanding that nothing untoward will happen to the investment and that the playing field does not develop the unhappy knack of tilting this way or that for reasons unconnected with business.

And where people from different cultures are involved, especially in these difficult times of clashes of civilisations, misconceptions and prejudices are easy to develop, and almost impossible to eradicate.

All these elements were present in the SmartCity saga. And, facing all these objective difficulties, what did we do? We turned the whole thing into a political ball game, the biggest ball game of the year.

To be honest, the first shot at goal came from the government side: it was during one local council election that Dr Gonzi started to speak of a good announcement to be made and, lo and behold! the first announcement came right in the middle of the campaign. That tinged the whole thing as a political gimmick, which it wasn’t.

For a time, Labour spread doubts but then, faced with the solidity of the project, they seemed to be appreciative of the concept and even went as far as to claim some kind of parallel negotiations, promptly denied.

Then, the chronology becomes a bit shaky; the PN got the barmy idea of using the Smart concept (could have come from the eponymous car, but most likely from SmartCity) in the Independence celebrations.

And Labour started to focus on the number of residential units in the whole project. There was a point in that: it did look strange though one cannot really indulge in property speculation on such short leases when one has invested so much in the infrastructure.

Then all went haywire. Instead of a quiet request for clarification, we had a television troupe that went all the way there asking all the wrong questions and ruffling feathers, followed by more media comment, including some which verged on the racist with verbal caricatures of the other side.

If negotiations are still on the cards, that must be because someone up there loves us beyond our foolishness, or maybe because for all our stupidity Malta is still far more attractive than we think it is. Had it been otherwise, people would have given up on us long ago.

There are still some unresolved problems, they said. There may well be, both on their side and also on ours. As the talks go into the (hopefully) final round, let the two sides work without this cacophony of comment. The time to comment, and to judge, will come once the deal is signed. Or not signed.

And any time the government deals with a potential, and big, investor, let it hold its horses till the deed is signed.