In its document, Economic Vision 2020-2025, the Malta Chamber of Commerce had asked for a “smart and sustainable island”, where economic growth would lead to a better quality of life. This is probably one of the strongest statements that have been made in recent years about the future of our economy as it is not vague in the message it wants to project. It links sustainability to economic growth and to a better quality of life.
Sustainability has been mentioned for around a decade. When the Prime Minister of Malta of the time had initially stated that as a country, we need to give more importance to sustainability, very few people paid much attention to the concept, and it never really caught on as a big idea to work on.
Probably many of us, who discarded this idea as some fad which would soon lose its glamour, rue the fact they have done so.
At the time, most analysts, politicians and thought leaders were still linking sustainability to climate change, protection of the environment and the green economy. Over the years we have come to realise that sustainability is way broader than just climate change and the environment. This is even more so in Malta’s case.
The recently coined term ‘ESG’, which stands for environmental, social and governance, is proof of the broader meaning of sustainability.
It is the mix of these three factors that drives sustainability and, eventually, quality of life. Therefore, unless we strengthen not only our environmental policies, but also our approach to governance, and unless we promote greater social cohesion, we cannot have a sustainable economy.
What is becoming increasingly certain is that material wealth and quality of life are not synonymous with each other
The use of the word ‘smart’ in the term ‘smart and sustainable island’ immediately communicates the message that Malta needs to develop its knowledge and its knowledge-based activities for its economy to thrive. This means that our economy can be sustainable in the future if we change our model.
We need a model that pushes our economy up the value chain. We need more value added for every unit of input, and this can only be achieved through knowledge. As such, it becomes very difficult to disengage the smart economy from the sustainable economy.
The third aspect is quality of life. Unless economic growth leads to a better quality of life, it is not sustainable. I appreciate that, while it is easy to understand economic growth because it is measured in numbers and numbers are irrefutable, it is not as easy to agree on what constitutes a better quality of life.
Some may attach more importance to certain indicators than to others. What is becoming increasingly certain is that material wealth and quality of life are not synonymous with each other. Health, education, leisure time, clean environment, peace of mind, rule of law, infrastructure and other elements all lead to a better quality of life.
What emerges from all this is that there are a number of elements that are intertwined and that they all need to be considered for our country to have economic growth and for it to thrive in future – knowledge, the environment, social cohesion, governance and quality of life. These factors in their totality will make us a smart and sustainable island.