The day after the launch of the PN’s electoral programme, I was being interviewed by a small group of highly talented, extremely ingenious and enterprising youths. All in their early 20s.

One of them, Mark, was telling me that he had just finished reading the bulk of the detailed PN’s programme. His eyes shone bright when sharing with me his excitement at the flagship proposal to bring the Metaverse to Malta. One of 10 new and exciting economic sectors the PN wants Malta to be their natural European home.

Real change brings real jobs. The corporation of Facebook recently rebranded into ‘Meta’ to stay on top of the curve and vouched to create 10,000 new jobs within the European Union relating directly to building the Metaverse. 

By 2024, the Metaverse is estimated to be a nearly $800 billion market opportunity. 

The impact this can have on Malta if we tap into this industry? Endless. Thousands of high-income jobs that will allow our children to flourish, live a better life, relieve themselves from debt and transform their capabilities. 

The PN brought real change to Malta, yielding high-paying, good quality jobs in the gaming, aviation, information technology, pharmaceuticals and financial services sectors. These have provided us with tens of thousands of jobs directly and indirectly throughout the years and allowed our youths to discover new and exciting sectors and make a good living out of them. 

On the other hand, Labour brought us the Blockchain fiasco, without a robust regulatory framework. The result? The greylisting that ruined our reputation and is exerting enormous pressure on all the industries and jobs we have striven to build.  

Thus, the PN is looking at the next big thing: the Metaverse. The term Metaverse is fast becoming a buzzword in business and tech. Think of it as an internet that you are not just looking at but also living in. Instead of watching or reading about a topic, you will be experiencing it, doing those actions yourself digitally along with other people who want to be part of the experience.

Let us simplify it further. Imagine you are far away from your family. How do you stay in touch with them? The closest we can be today is through video calls. You feel left out as the family sits on video and plays UNO or poker. The Metaverse promises to change that. Here you can meet your family in a virtual space; you can play that game in your digital form. The Metaverse can offer this – an experience, not just sight and sound. 

The next two years will be the years of the Metaverse- Jason Azzopardi

In the health industry, the Metaverse will allow virtual surgeries to take place inside an operating room simultaneously with a real one. One will project a virtual twin of the patient on a screen in the corner of the operating room and show the surgeon that it is better to do it from another angle. The technology will also be used for training. Two people thousands of miles apart can jointly practise virtual surgeries.

You can buy your new car in the Metaverse, not from a static showroom of cars but while taking a test drive on the racetrack of your choosing. You can get advice from a personal advisor that you pull from the Metaverse into your living room.

You can also visit a property you are interested in from the comfort of your kitchen.

Marketers, store designers, merchandisers and more will have to begin thinking very differently about what a ‘store’ is. 

Facebook is certainly not alone in the push to the Metaverse. Investors and tech companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google are racing to be part of a virtual universe.

Fashion and retail companies are noticing the trend of experimenting with making virtual clothing that people’s avatars can wear in Metaverse environments.

The next two years will be the years of the Metaverse. We want to be at the forefront of this. 

The opportunities for Malta are endless. The quicker we establish a home for the Metaverse in Malta, the faster we can attract foreign direct investment into our country. In turn, this will create high-paying jobs and transform Malta into a digital centre of excellence. With such a transformation, we will see a positive knock-on impact on other industries, such as the gaming and IT sectors. 

The Metaverse is not just an experiment anymore but it’s becoming an inevitable alternative to reality; therefore, resisting it or being in denial is a bad idea.

The PN is your guarantee to ensure a solid and formidable new sector attracting thousands of jobs and securing high-income jobs for our citizens. 

The PN is literally the party of the future of a new, cleaner, richer, nicer Malta.