Compared to other EU member states, Malta is very weak as far as innovation is concerned.

This is the conclusion of the National Competitiveness Report, unveiled last Thursday at a business breakfast held by The Malta Business Weekly and the Le Meridien Phoenicia.

Karl Montfort, the economics consultant of Competitivemalta, said that raising productivity is the driving force of investment.

Malta is in 17th place out of 25 as regards the basic requirements of the Competitive Report and in 18th place out of 25 as regards efficiency enhancers, but then it is 23rd out of 25 as regards innovation. Finland is the most competitive country.

Compared to the other states that joined the EU in 2004, Malta is generally in sixth place, with Estonia being the most competitive. Even here, Malta gets better grades when it comes to basic requirements and efficiency enhancers, but is in ninth place out of 10 in respect of innovation.

On the plus side, Malta has a very strong institutional set-up, good quality education, a healthy and productive workforce, few barriers to trade, sound banks and little restrictions as regards foreign ownership.

On the minus side, there is the burden of government compliance, the lack or mediocre quality of the overall infrastructure and the fact that government spending is still too high, thus leading to heavy government debt. There is a general lack of specialised personnel. Malta has the highest level of government subsidies in the EU and the lowest spend on R&D and, for all the students at the university, Malta has the lowest percentage of students studying science and technology.

Former Tory MP Simon Coombes, who is now resident in Malta for most of the year, pointed out that Malta is about to lose two levers of economic control, so it must work all the harder to become competitive.

Thus it is all the more urgent to improve the Malta brand: Malta must become more accessible, the road programme must be stepped up; the harbours’ potential must be developed and the nettle of doing something about the entrance to Valletta must be grasped. There must be far more done to make the visitor feel welcome, even by increasing the amount of signage everywhere, and the provision of better information at heritage sites.

It is time for a general clean-up of Malta. Malta is very dirty: there are no fewer than 25 unofficial dumping sites between Marsascala and the SmartCity site. There must be far more stringent enforcement of anti-dumping measures, more education in civic pride and an ongoing national clean-up campaign.

With the Hamrun tragedy still in people’s shocked minds, Mr Coombes urged the tougher enforcement of measures to make work safer and healthier for workers: no hard hats can be seen on any of the innumerable development sites around his house.

From his interviews with businessmen, Mr Coombes has concluded that the Maltese civil service is regarded as inefficient and obstructive. It is also, proportionally, among the largest in the world but it is completely ineffective, because we need far more enforcers and fewer people sitting in an office. Mepa, universally hated, needs to take a more rigorous approach to the planning processes, especially with regard to small applications.

As Joe Woods, who was in the audience, pointed out: the choice facing Malta is “eat lunch or be lunch”.