Within today’s uncertain economic and social times, along with expectations of major challenges ahead, the private sector depends on its representative body in a stronger way.

In response, establishing a stronger representative voice of business is fundamentally needed not only in the name of all private enterprise, but also for the entire nation.

The private sector needs a voice that can more effectively contribute towards tangibly improving governance by fostering further transparency, integrity and accountability in both the public and private sectors.

It needs a voice that can better cultivate the mutual interest among the private sector, civil society and policy makers, with a view to also further promoting consultative collaboration.

In all this, the voice of business must endeavour to ongoingly promote and ultimately achieve. 

Just as important as it is for any government to uphold good market governance, with fully functional regulatory authorities, along with ensuring a level playing field for all economic players, it is similarly important to establish a stronger representative voice of business that can freely speak its mind, always being able to challenge government action, or inaction, whenever necessary.

This remains an important prerequisite for any representative body in any properly functioning economy. Just as private enterprise ultimately needs competition to push it forward to stay ahead of the curve, so does any government need credi­ble critics which can constructively contribute and ensure the necessary checks and balances to keep our economy moving in the right direction.

Let us all not forget that it is useless for any government to have good intentions about distributing wealth unless we also pursue policies that help to create it. After all, it is not public expenditure that leads the way to greater prosperity – it is the successful performance of private enterprise.

With the risk of falling short of expectations, the prevailing voice of business needs to be stronger. Stronger to be able to neutralise the continued dominance of politicians, elevating discussions well above the politi­cal debate. There is no doubt that when talking about business and politics, there is an easy way and a hard way. The easy way is to avoid politics altogether. The hard way is to become engaged in the issues.

The private sector needs a voice that can more effectively contribute towards tangibly improving governance- Norman Aquilina

Neither understanding nor talking about politics is what sometimes gets us into undesirable political situations, with all the economic and social implications that this brings. Hence the need to be both politically aware and some­times even politically engaged, irrespective of one’s position, especially on key issues, if we truly seek to improve our society.

We are here certainly not talking about party politics but about voicing the private sector’s point of view on any politically-driven policies, conditions and direction. We’re talking about the need for representative bodies to rise to the occasion and act collectively on na­tional issues, to support a cause that may also need to be viewed beyond sectorial interests.  

Developing responsive economic policies is critical, with the private sector always needing to maintain its contributing role in shaping such poli­cies. These policies give substance along with the strategic direction towards the establishment of a foreseeable environment that offers both steady and long-term economic growth.

The private sector requires a stronger voice that constantly promotes the right concepts and practices of both market and corporate governance along with good corporate citizenship. 

Unfortunately there is this (mis)understanding that business, most notably big business, is there to simply exploit its financial interests.

Putting prejudices aside, one must objectively recognise that size does not render a business good or bad, and even if big businesses may be more influential, what truly renders a business good or bad is the level of governance it applies, the work ethics it adopts, and the driving principles it is built on and practices, along with how it fundamentally achieves and measures its success.  

Where is the voice of business in all this? By all means let us all embrace any needed changes to ensure we have a stronger voice of business. But let us make sure we make the right changes, changes that are statutorily aligned with any declared intent, changes that are transparent and strategically well thought out, changes that reflect the sensitivities and importance they deserve, to arrive at one key objective: that of having a stronger voice of business.

However, what is ultimately needed is not only a stronger voice of business that is credibly coherent, proactive, impartial and apolitical, but also a stronger voice that inspires, offers direction and portrays a clear vision both to legislators and the business community.

What is needed is a voice that can more effectively represent the interests of the private sector along with the economic prosperity of the nation and subsequent well-being of society.

This is what private enterprise should expect from its representative voice of business, and nothing less.

Norman Aquilina is CEO, Simonds Farsons Cisk plc.