Lord Jonathan Marland, the Chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council, tells Neil Camilleri that Britain would not have come out of the recession had its politicians not acted as salesmen of their own country. He also speaks about the great possibilities that the Commonwealth Business Forum will offer Maltese companies, how mass migration could affect economies and the effects that an exit from the EU would have on British commerce.

For many Maltese, CHOGM is all about the Queen’s visit. Would you say that the Commonwealth Business Forum is one of the most important aspects of the event?

In a fast changing world many countries are looking at how they can increase their trade, develop as a country and grow their economies. They have to develop or build upon trading links with other countries. The Commonwealth Trade Forum puts a third of the world’s population and 53 member countries of the Commonwealth in a potential trade basket and this is a tremendous business opportunity. Therefore you will find that trade will be at the heart of a lot of the stuff that is going on in the Commonwealth in the foreseeable future.

Can you quantify these opportunities?

The Commonwealth Secretariat is currently working on a good initiative that highlights the benefits of trading within this group of countries. These will be announced during the forum. It will show things like how easier it is to trade with commonwealth countries. Having travelled all over the world as a businessperson and the UK Prime Minister’s trade envoy it is clear to me that the best people to do business with are the people that speak the same language, who have fundamental rule of law which is similar to yours. I love coming to Malta because we understand each other. We do not need interpreters to discuss business with each other and Malta has got a strong rule of law. There are enormous benefits of doing that. In other countries, say China, it could be less easy.

You are hoping for real outcomes out of the Commonwealth Business Forum. What would the ideal scenario be?

I don’t want to pre-judge any announcements that we are going to make but is it is important that we do have outcomes. If institutions like the Commonwealth, the EU and the UN are going to survive they will have to deliver outcomes for the people who are members of them. We are a membership organization and therefore have to have real activity. We are an enabling organization. Our job is to create the atmosphere and the space where businesses can come together and strike deals. We will be dealing with six sectors which I believe are real to each commonwealth country and indeed particularly to Malta. These include technology, health, sustainability, tourism and infrastructure.

Take the last one as an example. The Chinese are making huge inroads in Africa with countries with which we traditionally have a great relationship. They are now going to the Chinese or the Koreans and we need to be able to compete and take the opportunities that present themselves.

Who will be there attending the business forum?

Around 20 heads of government are expected to attend the Commonwealth Business Forum between 24 and 26 November. I will be chairing and hosting the event along with Prime Minister Joseph Muscat. The Prince of Wales will be making a keynote speech during the event and other high-profile speakers, like the Lord Mayor of London, will also be taking part. There will also be chairmen and chief executives from the biggest companies in the world, as well as international investors, like the Malaysian Pension Fund, the Q8 Investment Authority.

There will be many trade ministers and senior business figures from countries not limited to the Commonwealth. Plus an opportunity for over a thousand delegates to mingle with them. It’s a fantastic event really if you are a businessman. This is about enabling and that is what we are going to do, take the horse to the water and hopefully the horse will drink. We can’t get people to sign deals, they have to do it themselves, but we will be putting them under the same roof in an atmosphere where that could happen.

Would you say that the country hosting CHOGM given a sort of advantage over the rest?

I think it’s marvelous that Malta – an entrepreneurial nation – is hosting the event. Malta is a trading nation, a country that puts commerce at the top of its priorities. So the country is unbelievably well-suited to host this event. I would be very surprised if Maltese businesses do not take the full advantage and opportunities. That does not mean that Malta would have an unfair advantage but I think Malta would put itself in an unfair advantage because of its attitude towards business. Some countries do not have quite a commercial zeal such as Malta. I think that as for CHOGM itself people will feel both secure and welcome here. Malta is a very hospitable and outward facing nation that treats others with respect. I think it is a really good setting for CHOGM and the business forum. Credit also goes to Phyllis Muscat and your Prime Minister for driving the event forward.

What is your impression, as an outsider, of Malta’s current economic performance?

I think people should be rightly envious of Malta. You’ve got economic growth, virtually no unemployment and there is an ambition to do things for the benefit of the country. I was reading today about the plans for the marine agenda, which is a very well thought out course of action that has been thought out by the government. I think there is a lot of stuff going on which is securing Malta as a place for enterprise and security for the foreseeable future.

Many African countries are a part of the Commonwealth yet many of them are in economic turmoil and the source of migration. Do you think that the Commonwealth could address this and bring prosperity to these countries?

Yes, if you have economic prosperity you do not tend to have migration. Most people want to stay in their countries and they will find every good reason for staying there. It is when it gets to that point that there is nothing there for them that they leave. That is part of the problem that we have. It is not just African countries but several others across the world. They have to play catch-up in terms of business practices and how they run themselves for the benefit of the nation rather than perhaps for the personal interests of politicians. In recent years we have seen governments toppled because the people felt that their leaders were not acting for the benefit of their countries. I think that has got to change.

What effect could mass migration have on businesses? Some politicians say migrants are a burden while others say they are needed to boost their labour force.

I was brought up in Britain where we had a constant stream of migration. This has been very much to our country’s benefit. But you get to a point where there is no more room or there are not enough jobs. That is the debate that is going on in the UK today. I am sure the same debate is happening in Malta and other countries – the question of how many more we can take. Broadly speaking we are all tolerant and sympathetic nations but you can get to a point where you cannot physically take any more people.

Would a possible exit of the UK from the EU have a negative impact on UK and Commonwealth business?

It would have a positive impact on the Commonwealth for sure because the UK has a very free-trading arrangement within Europe which it does not have with many Commonwealth countries. This strikes me as being utterly bizarre. There will be some and some. Some companies will not benefit from us leaving the EU but there will be many that do. Most SME’s in the UK would like to see us leaving the EU. By and large most of the bigger companies want us to stay in. For my part it is like any other organization – we are all members of a lot of things and when it ceases to become value for money we question it and possibly decide that we should get out. I think it is up to the EU now to persuade us that there are vast benefits to remaining within it.

As a person with both a political and a business background, what do you think about politicians acting salesmen for their country? Is it something that should be done or should this role be left for others?

Politicians should set the tone for how their country is perceived abroad. When I was the UK Prime Minister’s trade envoy, it was very important for the Prime Minister to engage with commerce, which allowed us to open doors in countries with which perhaps we had not traded with before or had weak trade relations with. I think that businesses want to see the Prime Minister and other Ministers leading the way, and selling Britain, in our case. That is why I did it for three-and-a-half years. I was selling Britain and that was a great privilege. It was needed and we would not have come out of the economic crisis if, as a government, we hadn’t gone out and sold Britain. It goes back to what the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council does – our job is to enable, to try and create the framework where people can go and do deals. That is what we have done in the UK and I think it is the right thing for most countries to do.