Quality was the buzzword on everyone’s lips this week as the Government announced the announcement of its new Brand Malta Quality Mark, a part of its strategy of taking the country to the next level.
A beaming Prime Minister announced yet another "first in Europe" initiative that will ensure that all things Maltese will now have to carry a new quality mark – an official guarantee of, well, quality.
"All our policies, strategies, initiatives and personnel’ will now be hallmarked by an emphasis on quality," he said.
State services, tourism, construction, infrastructure, food, hotels, restaurants, beaches and even deckchairs will carry this quality mark. A new ‘Quality Czar’ will be appointed to oversee quality assurance in all relevant sectors and initiatives.
This new initiative, like so many others announced by the government, would be implemented soon.
The Prime Minister was at pains to emphasise that his regime would in future be known as a ‘Quality Regime’. Henceforth, everything he and his government did or said would officially be "quality-proofed". His objective was to ensure that Malta became the standout example of ‘quality’ in the Mediterranean region and beyond.
In a frank and unusually forthcoming interview, the PM revealed that this latest ‘world class’ initiative has its roots in the tourism and employment sectors. Faced with a rapid increase in mass tourism and complaints from many in the sector, his government has decided to opt for ‘quality tourists’.
He explained that such tourists opted more for wine than beer, avoided package holidays, booked higher-standard hotels, spent more money per capita, usually sported fewer tattoos, dressed properly and generally elevated the tone of the country.
While his government would continue to prioritise mass market tourism of "lower quality" (beer, pizza, shorts, bikinis and loud music) it would also give priority to the "upper end of the market". Prioritising both these priorities would remain his priority.
There was, he insisted, no contradiction in his government’s approach. "Diversification" and "balance" in the type and "quality" of tourists would now guide his approach in this as in so many other areas.
A second impetus for the initiative came from the employment sector, where many also argued the country needed a higher quality of imported workers. Such workers would be trained to work "properly" and with the "right attitude" in restaurants, hotels, construction sites, in taxis and buses and while delivering pizzas.
They would have more understanding of established Maltese behaviour, manners and culture and would be dissuaded from expecting the same rights, wages or access to services as local workers.
As part of his government’s "levelling up" approach to quality, the PM announced yet another breakthrough to promote new buildings that are less negative environmentally, are more pleasing aesthetically and which improve the people’s quality of life.
He rejected any suggestion that previous building styles promoted by his government and its funders did not do so, "it’s just that the new ones would have that same quality, only more of it."
"Under the new ‘quality mark’, things will be exactly the same only completely different," he said.
The PM reacted angrily to the suggestion that ‘quality proofing’ the members of his cabinet and his many appointments to key institutions was a necessary condition for improving the overall quality of life in Malta. He retorted that it was be well nigh impossible to find public representatives who better served the agenda than those already in place.
Malta was, he argued, at the "cutting edge" of leadership in modern politics where quality, probity, honesty, future vision, public service and accountability were paramount. His government and his party would continue to protect and promote the values and the agenda it had so vigorously pursued over the past 11 years.
In a nutshell, he concluded "the same, only more of it".