Yesterday the country celebrated the 59th anniversary of its independence. On September 21, 1964, we became a sovereign state. I am old enough to remember the event  but young enough not to have understood at the time the mood of the country. So I had to rely on the memory of persons older than me to help me understand the sentiment pervading in Malta at the time.

There were surely those who were afraid that following independence, our economy would just collapse because we could no longer rely on handouts coming from the United Kingdom.

At the time, our tourists were mainly the families of British servicemen stationed in Malta. Our manufacturing sector was very rudimentary. The services sector was inexistent, and for most of our economic activities, we simply acted as agents for foreign companies. Our economy had to rely on the emigration of Maltese to countries such as Australia, Canada, the US and the UK as a safety valve.

However, the prevailing sentiment was another one. Most people were willing to learn and try their hand at doing new things. They were willing to work hard and take up the challenge to prove that we could make it on our own.

Today we take a number of things for granted and the development process which our country went through following independence does not form part of our collective memory. Over the years, we attracted a significant amount of foreign investment with a number of manufacturing companies which set up shop in Malta in the 1960s and 1970s still present here. Thanks to a number of young Maltese bankers who were raring to go, our banking sector developed to what we have known it for a number of years.

Fifty-nine years ago, many Maltese felt like pioneers

Hotels started being built as tourism developed and new markets opened up. Local investors exploited the opportunities that were presented to them. While all this was happening, there was significant investment in education, the physical infrastructure and social welfare.

Things did not happen overnight. For example, we set up a national airline 10 years after independence. However, as a country, we were capable of initiating, promoting and managing change. Over the years we kept restructuring and renewing our economy. We faced a challenge to our economy − similar to the one we faced in 1964 − in 1979 when Malta stopped being a military base and the money and the funds from the UK stopped flowing.

We then went through another transformation in 2003 when Malta became a member of the European Union. Our economy had to adapt to the requirements of EU membership while seeking to exploit the opportunities which EU membership presented.

And we certainly exploited those opportunities, even though we knew that the benefits were not to be reaped in the short term but in the medium and long term.

Fifty-nine years ago, many Maltese felt like pioneers. We started from scratch and built an economy that has proved itself to be resilient over the decades, in spite of international and home-made crises. This same pioneering feeling was felt later on as we faced seemingly difficult challenges. However, our aspirations were greater than the difficulties we encountered. We need to rediscover this same feeling to develop a new economic model for this country.