Business in Malta Is Always Strong Thanks to the Maltese Being So Hard Working and Crafty

The focus of the debate was Business in Malta is always strong thanks to the Maltese being so hard working and crafty. The debate was held at the University of Malta, on Thursday 22nd March 2012. The speakers were eight students, having four talking in favour and four against.

The debate started by mentioning the advantages of investing in Malta. These included the island`s location in the Mediterranean and having English as the business language. Which of course these result in less communication and freight costs. Also foreign investors consider the Maltese workforce as an attractive key investment factor. In fact, Actavis Managing Director said that the highly talented employees are a key contributor to the success of the company. These are the main reasons why pharmaceutical manufacturing, ICT and aircraft maintenance companies are choosing Malta, as their country to operate in.

Later, it was explained that business in Malta and all over the world cannot always be strong because it is an economic phenomenon and that economies fluctuate and go through boom and recessions. This was clearly explained by Malta`s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures as in the year 1999 the economy grew and in 2009 due to a global recession, it contracted. Then looking at recently Malta`s GDP per capita is below the EU average which clearly shows how business in Europe is overall much stronger than that in Malta.

Furthermore it was expressed that the Maltese people are lazy, considering that Maltese teachers are spending much less time at school than their European counterparts. Which this is not fair as one has to take into consideration the time spend on corrections that teachers spend at home whilst the European teachers carry it out at school. It was worth nothing that Malta has the highest amount of holidays in a year, as it has five national holidays and nine public holidays. This was quickly opposed as Malta may have the highest amount of holidays but the Maltese normal weekly working hours escalates up to 40 hours, which is higher than that compared to the EU average of 38 hours per week. Adding on that if the Maltese were not hard workers, then the rate of part timers who also hold a primary job wouldn`t have increased.

Then the discussion turned on crafty, which means a person thinking outside the box. It was argued that Malta as a small island the Maltese feel the need to be recognised, therefore any opportunity that comes in our way it is taken. An example of the Maltese craftiness was shown in the case of Bank of Valletta, which is a local bank with the interest of expanding in Libya even during times when in Libya there were many problems. Another case is Corinthia Group of Companies a local business which nowadays is all over the world. The group against stated that business is strong not because the Maltese are crafty, but because they hold barriers to entry. Furthermore they argued that the way in which