“The major resource of the island, its strategic position, has become largely obsolete. The problem before Malta is not so much the usual problem of economic development but of painful adaptation to technological obsolescence. It is not merely the advent of missiles and atomic ships and bombs that have made the strategic value of Malta obsolete… but its major importance which required its possession by the major naval power and the denial of the base to others seems irrevocably gone.”
Sixty-one years ago, the United Nations economic mission concluded that “to make a successful transition from a major naval bastion to a self-sustaining economy... the training and attitudes of the people” have to change as they “themselves have also become obsolete”.
In its ‘Report on Economic Transformation and Development in Malta’, the UN mission concluded, a year before the 1964 Independence: “Very little of the circumstances that affect Malta’s well-being are within the control of any Maltese Government. This statement does not refer to the problem of independence but to the objective facts of Malta’s situation as a small domestic market.”
The report maintained that the only way for the Maltese to create jobs and improve their standard of living was to learn to be competitive and efficient to export their products and services to the rest of the world. It emphasised that “these facts will not change with independence”.
The UN economic mission warned that Malta’s viability could only be reached through making local business and labour internationally competitive and not through “gimmicks without effectiveness”.
Foresight, strategic planning and effective implementation, as well as the nurture of the relevant know-how, skills and aptitudes for a modern economy was needed. “No miracles can be expected.”
The Maltese needed a new mindset understanding that the world does not owe Malta a living. They must move away from an aid-dependent mentality, expecting charity from overseas, and transform their culture of dependence into a spirit of self-reliance. Getting money from overseas was not enough; the challenge was to make sure that it was spent well.
The UN economic mission said that, in Malta, there was “an unwillingness to take decisions that disturb the status quo and a tendency to blame others for shortcomings and expect others to change their ways”.
The UN economic mission felt that the Maltese people should not be protected from the hard facts of life and must learn that everything had a cost, even government services, and those needed tax revenues coming from a thriving economy that, in turn, depended on “productivity of labour and profitability of investments as the only solid foundations upon which an expanding economy can be based”.
A new compass needed
Sixty years later, these fundamentals have not changed. In the 60 years since Independence, when we started transforming our national economy, we have had to reinvent ourselves repeatedly to ensure that we can survive and thrive on these islands.
We face new huge challenges to ensure our viability as a microstate providing a decent standard of living to our people in a changed world- Evarist Bartolo
We need to change our business model again into one where we can participate fully in the global and regional economy and attract investment for products and services from overseas markets. It is obvious that we do not and cannot depend only on a labour-intensive economy that needs thousands of migrant workers as our population continues to age and our birth rate to decline.
We need to seriously address the problem of sustainable social and economic development in the years ahead. Whether we like it or not, we need to change our business model to meet challenges outside our control: European and international regulations regarding tax, aviation, energy, banking,anti-money laundering… and the geopolitical and geo-economic reality of a new multipolar world.
We need to recognise that the European Union, a smaller part of the world, will continue to lose its centrality and will have to adjust to living with the global majority instead of trying to dominate it.
We need our people in politics, business and civil society to engage in a robust debate about our future. We need a deep understanding of where we are, making an honest assessment of our shortcomings and drawing up a national inclusive and strategic action plan on the way forward.
We face tough challenges to ensure that Malta is a liveable country and that our physical and social infrastructure can adequately support our population, migrant workers and tourists. Already as things stand, in the Numbeo Index made up of quality of life, purchasing power, safety, health, cost of living, property prices, commuting time, pollution and climate, we are ranked 49 out of 85 countries.
Malta has come a long way in the last 60 years. Out of 193 countries, Malta is ranked in 25th place in the Human Development Index compiled by the United Nations and used to quantify a country’s “average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living”. But this great achievement cannot make us complacent.
Today, 60 years since Independence, we face new huge challenges to ensure our viability as a microstate providing a decent standard of living to our people in a changed world. Old solutions will simply not work.
We need to remember what the UN economic mission told us in 1963: “We regret the sharpness of our remarks. But we feel that, unless the real problems are clearly and widely understood, unless there is a will to change on all sides, and a willingness to take some risks and some unpleasantness, the end result will inevitably be much worse.
“We have been induced to make these remarks because we have met on all sides a lack of understanding of the rapidity of change that takes place in the world… The demands on all sectors of the population for change will be greater than ever before and they will be continuous… it will involve giving up many deeply ingrained and cherished attitudes.”
Evarist Bartolo is a former Labour foreign and education minister.