Malta: The Switzerland in the Mediterranean

Times of Malta 08/10/2013: The global economy is undergoing significant structural changes that are rendering obsolete the distinction bet­ween ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries. Today, according to the Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014, the relevant divide is between ‘innovation-rich’ and ‘innovation-poor’ ones.

This has important implications for the competitiveness of nations and their capacity to create wealth.

Such thinking simply ‘repackages’ existing knowledge; its only merit is in putting innovation at the centre of the development process. Not so long ago, we were being told that the big divide was between ‘information-rich’ and the ‘information-poor’ countries.

Innovation is a complex phenomenon and has divergent meanings to different people but, for sure, it implies the convergence of education and economic strategies to foster entrepreneurship and technological advancement...read on.