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A forceful drive to improve prosperity is required for Malta to position itself as an advanced economy within the European Union 25 - failure to do so will relegate us to the EU’ s laggards.” This warning is given by ‘ Competitive Malta’ a foundation set up by Maltese and foreign business executives from companies ranging from manufacturing and financial services to tourism. In their last report compiled for the World Economic Forum about competitiveness among 104 countries Malta’ s ranking dropped to 32 from 19. The main reasons for this drop are a lack of a vision of where we should be heading, government’ s inability to curb the deficit, very low spending on research and development, low level of university/industry research collaboration and wastefulness of government spending.
If Malta wants to catch up with leading EU countries and improve its current 18 position in Gross Domestic Product ranking, we need better governance and new economic growth that can only come from a highly educated and skilled workforce. Pointing to Ireland’ s success by targeting two key knowledge industries, software and pharmaceuticals, ‘ Competitive Malta’ stresses that: “The percentage of university students studying science and engineering in Ireland is now 35 per cent - higher than the European Union average of 30 per cent.”
We are lagging behind in this area. According to Professor Alfred J Vella, “although total university numbers have increased significantly during the last ten years the proportion of Math and Science graduates (mathematicians, scientists and engineers) during the same period has remained stable at about 8 per cent.”
At sixth form, statistics from the Junior College show that the percentage of students following Math and Science education hovers around 29-30 per cent for the period 2000-2004. We are still not managing to persuade the best students to follow university courses in science and engineering. Why? Professor Vella explains that: “One has to remember that sixth form science students are also absorbed into the science-based professional courses from ‘competing faculties’ most notably medicine, health care and architecture. How do you convince a science student with straight As in matriculation exams to turn away from, say medicine towards a less glamorous degree in chemistry? Obviously, we also do need good physicians and pharmacists and so on but the science-based manufacturing society prospected by the EU for its members in the first part of the 21 century has to be built on science and technology graduates. Better funding for science and engineering departments at the university will definitely improve the situation even by helping to provide a financial base for the development of a robust research community that should hopefully spill out through science parks into private investment in Research and Development. EU funds should augment this effort and not support it in its entirety. The national spend on research in this country is well, well below 0.1 per cent GDP when the EU objective is 3 per cent.
Broadcasting limbo
Are you satisfied with the quality of public broadcasting after it has been restructured? John G Borg Bartolo does not hesitate to answer: “Has it really been restructured? Public broadcasting seems to have been put in somewhat of a limbo, rather than having been restructured. The only two things that are definite are the termination of over a 100 jobs and the newly introduced two-tier administration to run the joint in the form of the new-look editorial board, and the old-fashioned board of directors, which, under the new regime, seems to have been rendered toothless.”
John says that he does not see “an iota of improvement in either the quality of management, or in the poor standard of programming, for both radio and TV, or in the political bias that has rendered the station, since inception, a political club of the party in government.”
John talks about the mess made of the discharges/recruitment of personnel. “First, they fire staff they considered unqualified, then they ask them to stay on, for a while, to mitigate the crisis, now they are inviting them to reapply for employment. In addition, they are seeking to engage more senior staff that would render the set-up top heavy once again.”
John thinks that those “(ir) responsible for such a farce should resign. Such an action would serve to inject the culture of resignation into the Maltese blood, wouldn’t it?”
How would John go about improving public broadcasting? “First and foremost pick a chairman that has the experience, the skills and the determination to manage efficiently and effectively, irrespective of his political beliefs. The chairman should be given the prerogative to recommend, to government, the other members of board of directors. A mature, skilled and determined chairman would surely look for the right team to ensure success. A dedicated chairman would neither put his financial remuneration, nor the choice of buddies to sit on the board, as his priorities. Rather, he would give more consideration to job satisfaction, challenge and success, as his targets.”
John believes that steps should be taken to make public broadcasting truly public: reflecting the diversity of opinions and orientations of the Maltese public and not simply the mouthpiece of the party in government. “To achieve this aim, governments should refrain from appointing ‘softies’‚ on boards of directors, to easily steer them in the direction they please. In addition, public broadcasting has to be totally free from political interference of whatever sort. Also, governments should seek the services of those who, in addition to their skills and experiences, would not hesitate to step on the toes of those who deserve no better. PBS Ltd should aim at building a transparent and accountable relationship with the general public.
John is certain that with the right choice of people to shoulder the responsibility of managing the institution, there would be an all-round improvement, be it management, programming, or the company’s finances. “There still seems to be an attitude of that laissez-faire mentality that has reigned at Guardamangia for years on end. I very much wonder whether any controls whatsoever have been introduced to scrutinise expenditure, revenue, staff absenteeism, or to safeguard the company’s general assets. Take, for example, the setting up of the editorial board, is there truly the need for the two boards, other than to shift power from one board to the other?”
John quotes the BBC’s chairman as his parting shot, “to keep the rest of broadcasting honest, we must be honest with ourselves and about ourselves.”
evaristbartolo@hotmail.com
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