“Such initiatives work to further develop Malta’s research and innovation ecosystem — which is one of the agency’s primary aims, as a collaboration between industry, the public sector and academia remains critical to sustaining both economic and social development,” the Malta Enterprise said.

During the event, Malta Enterprise CEO Kurt Farrugia stressed the importance of strengthening strategic cooperation by stimulating industries and motivating academics to collaborate together.

“The importance of such collaboration is crucial to ensure that we edge our innovation element even further — especially given the current high-paced growth and dynamic investment climate in Malta. This is key to sustain and drive to new heights, our economic and social growth,” according to the Malta Enterprise.

Malta Enterprise says it will keep its commitment to holding similar initiatives which the organisation hopes will result in forging closer ties between academia, industry and the government. “The role of the government will be that of a catalyst to facilitate closer interaction between academia and industry,” Malta Enterprise says in the press statement.

Dr Christopher Haley, Head of New Technology & Startup Research at Nesta, chaired the Academia & Industry roundtable. Senior representatives from the government, the University of Malta, the Malta College of Arts Science and Technology (MCAST), Chamber of Commerce and various industry players gathered together to explore further avenues how to bridge the gaps between academia and industry. Present for the meeting were the President of the Chamber of Commerce David Xuereb, representatives from the Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Businesses, the Ministry for European Affairs and Equality, the University of Malta, MCAST, MCST, National Skills Council together with representatives from Trelleborg, Abertax Technologies and Raesch Quarz Ltd.

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If one runs a Google search for the word “innovation”, the world’s number one search engine — and portable operating system provider, and email services provider, and video streaming platform provider, etc — will list more than 4.1 billion results in a fraction of a second — 0.6 sec to be precise. Astounding result for a passion project that started from a garage a bit more than two decades ago.

Since then, the online world has reshaped how we think about our lives and businesses alike. Innovation — or (the use of) a new idea or method, according to the Cambridge Dictionary — has come a long way since the wheel was invented, or the first Ford Model T hit the streets rolling rather loud and slow.

Fast forward to today; innovation appears to be both an end result and also a practice. “As a practice, innovation to me is about understanding ourselves as living systems in constant cycles of creation and closure whereby we see the closing of a phase as feeding into a new one. We make our organisations and businesses more resilient if innovation is an embedded and ongoing practice. There are techniques and methodologies with which organisations can ensure a continuous cycle of innovation,” Tatiana Glad, founder and director of Impact Hub Amsterdam, tells Business Malta.

Kicking off at 08:30 in the morning of 10 October, the Co-Design Session will be organised by the ENISIE Project which is funded by INTERREG Italia – Malta Programme, as part of the Malta Innovation Summit 2019.

Innovation can be driven by “creating both safe and provocative spaces for people to think out-of-the-box […]”

For innovation and design, out-of-the-box thinking has increasingly become a skill of importance, even if the notion is becoming commonplace for some. Still, how can innovation be driven? “By creating both safe and provocative spaces for people to think out-of-the-box and experiment with putting new ideas into practice,” according to Ms Glad. “As well as honest conversations about failure! External facilitators can help keep the innovation workshops neutral and unbiased in order to maximise the contribution of the diverse contributors,” she adds.

It is a commonly accepted fact that great ideas are rarely sparked in a vacuum. Dialogue and open discussions can lead to the inception of intriguing brain pickings and provide the social network for collaborations developing a bold concept into reality. “My team is currently focussing on spurring innovation in specific societal issue areas and working with diverse stakeholders in an ecosystem approach. Just as the expression says ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ we believe it takes an ecosystem to raise an innovative idea or startup. We do this in the areas of food, inclusion, circularity and plastics, as well as city-wide with the city of Amsterdam,” Ms Glad tells BM.

Impact Hub Amsterdam, as part of the global Impact Hub network of impact entrepreneurs and innovators with more than 16,000 members in over 100 cities around the world, invests great effort in making change happen. The hub says it facilitates entrepreneurial solutions to society’s biggest challenges, supported by access to its network and business expertise. Additionally, the hub can provide resources and capital in need, organises events, hosts a collaborative working space, and runs a series of accelerator programs. 

Driving innovation

Lately, Malta has been positioning itself as a real innovator on the brink of the European continent. Since 2007, the country has become one of the leaders in terms of regulating and supporting online gambling development, and more recently, with enhanced focus on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, crypto, artificial intelligence, digital games and eSports, as well as progress related to medical cannabis, the island nation is making efforts in the field of state-of-the-art innovation. “There is real on-the-ground commitment such as The Malta Innovation Hub at the Malta Life Sciences Park as a provider of support services to stimulate social innovation among Maltese stakeholders,” Ms Glad says about Malta’s role in innovation.

Despite the 21st century delivering such a fertile ground for innovation, projects will bump into difficulties down the road. One of the most important challenges, Ms Glad says, is how to translate a bigger vision for positive change to the society into a product or service that meets real needs. Then the next challenge is to “access the capital it requires at various stages of its growth trajectory without compromising on its values. From the innovation point of view, established enterprises and public services need to be open for innovation from outside sources. Innovative SME are more agile to develop innovative products, processes and services and a pilot contract for such innovation within the established organisations can have a real impact,” she says.

No matter how good an idea is, however, if it finds no surrounding support it might not blossom into a working project. “The lack of support or space for experimentation, coupled with an impatient demand for results or return” can undermine innovation easily, Ms Glad says. “It is important to have support for innovation within an organisation through regular innovation workshops. Participation in innovation workshops needs to include staff, shareholders, customers and community representatives to ensure a successful, positive social impact. Innovation sometimes needs time to follow its natural path and allow something surprising to emerge,” she adds.

Nevertheless, Ms Glad has a strong message to all the startups that are caught up in the storm of pressure by high expectations and myriad of chores to be handled to make their project operate and deliver added value at the same time. One should “not be afraid to collaborate with others whether they be peers that help you learn faster together or partners who can bring valuable know-how and resources to the table. Don’t go at it alone,” Ms Glad concludes.

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The ministry with SUNx are aiming to take the lead in a global effort aimed at converting the threat of global climate change into an opportunity. The Global Centre for Climate Friendly Travel will launch measures accordingly. Malta will aim to deliver a number of initiatives designed to support the sector in its transformation, in collaboration with SUNx.

These initiatives and transformations include an annual review of the “Sector Climate Friendly Travel”, which will be published within the context of the United Nations General Assembly alongside the United Nation’s Secretary General’s Climate Action Summit in September and will be circulated widely amongst industry players, as the DOI press statement says.

In addition, an annual Malta Think Tank and a Climate Friendly travel summit are planned, as well as a public/private collaboration to engage graduate trainees to help deliver transformation in the front line, entitled Plan for Our Kids to put 100,000 STRONG Climate Champions across all United Nations states by 2030

“There is a growing international consensus for a strong shift from talk to action. This is amply evidenced by the political action of the European Union in raising the stakes these past few weeks by announcing the allocation of 1 in every 4 euro of the next budget to climate resilience,” said Minister for Tourism Konrad Mizzi. “This initiative will put Malta at the forefront of this change in creating more climate-friendly travel. We will become the home of SUNx — the Strong Universal Network — a global centre for Climate Friendly Travel following the targets of the Paris Agreement set in 2015.”

SUNx Co-founder Professor Geoffrey Lipman noted that “The reality is that we have a Climate Crisis and that the scientists, the governments, and the next generation are demanding an increased ambition. Travel and Tourism is a pivotal part of human activity and has to be at the leading edge of change.”

“Our collaboration with the government of Malta will provide a new impetus through Climate Friendly Travel, Measured, Green, and 2050-proof: a pathway to the New Climate Economy and 100,000 STRONG Climate Champions by 2030 to help the transformation. This is carrying on the vision of Maurice Strong, the father of Sustainable Development, who believed that Travel and Tourism could be a catalyst for positive change,” Mr Lipman added.

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As compared to April 2018, a decrease of 13.4% was registered in the production of consumer goods. Nevertheless, increases were registered in the production of energy (29.6%), intermediate goods (1%) and capital goods (0.1%).

In April, the drop was chiefly affected by a decrease of 4.6% registered in the production of consumer goods, according to the NSO press release, as compared to the preceding month. Nevertheless, slight growth was registered in the production of energy (1.5%), capital goods (0.6%) and intermediate goods (0.3%).

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

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On the one hand, decreases of 16.5% and 2.5% were recorded in the consumer and capital goods sectors, respectively. On the other hand, increases of 4.2% and 0.8% were recorded in the energy sector and intermediate goods sector, respectively, as the NSO press release says.

Seasonally-adjusted industrial employment increased by 0.1%, while hours worked decreased by 0.2%, and gross wages and salaries increased by 2.2%, according to NSO’s statistics.

Year-on-year increases of 9.4% and 7.8% were recorded in the intermediate goods and energy sectors, respectively. Meanwhile, respective decreases of 3.3% and 0.1% were recorded in the capital and consumer goods sectors, in Q1 2019, according to the NSO press release.

A decrease of 0.6% was recorded in the year-on-year unadjusted industrial employment. Working-day adjusted industrial hours worked decreased by 1% while working day adjusted industrial gross wages and salaries increased by 3.6%.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

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The rise was chiefly fuelled by growths in intermediate goods (3.84%), in consumer goods (1.65%) and in capital goods (0.15%). NSO figures reported no price changes registered in the energy sector.

Industrial producer prices for the domestic market were up by 1.13%, mainly boosted by a 3.4% growth in intermediate goods and 1.19% increase in consumer goods, while no price changes were recorded in the energy and capital goods sectors, according to NSO figures.

Non-domestic prices were up by 2.65%, due to a 3.55% rise within the non-euro area and 0.93% growth within the euro area.

As compared to February, the producer price index for total industry saw a rise of 1.74%, boosted by a price increase of 3.78% within intermediate goods and 0.70% in the
consumer goods sector, with no changes in the energy and capital goods sectors.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

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Despite recorded increases in the production of consumer goods and capital goods of 4% and 1.9%, respectively; significant drops have been registered in the production of energy (6.6%) and intermediate goods (1.7%).

The index of industrial production adjusted for working days decreased by 1.5%, as compared to the same month a year earlier. Drops were registered in the production of energy (6.6%), production of intermediate goods (3.4%) and the production of consumer goods (0.8%), while the production of capital goods was up by 3.0%, according to NSO figures.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

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A rise of 8.41% was recorded in intermediate goods in January, as compared to the same month a year earlier. Further slight increases were also seen in consumer goods (0.96%) and capital goods (0.19%). No price changes were registered within the energy sector, however.

Industrial producer prices for the domestic market saw a year-on-year increase of 0.52%. Price increases were recorded within intermediate goods (2.35%), consumer goods (1.54%) and capital goods (0.57%), the NSO figures show.

Non-domestic prices were up by 5.61% due to a rise of 7.13% within the non-euro area and 2.55% within the euro area, the NSO says.

Despite the annual rise, the producer price index for total industry registered a decrease of 0.07% over the previous month; December 2018. The figure was dragged down by a price drop of 0.18% within intermediate goods, supported by unchanged prices within the energy, capital and consumer goods sectors, NSO figures show. Prices within the domestic market remained constant, and non-domestic prices declined by 0.12%, the NSO adds.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

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All the main industrial sectors registered decreases, according to the NSO release. As compared to the previous month, the production of consumer goods fell by 4.8%, capital goods were down by 4.7%, intermediate goods slipped 3.2%, and energy was down by 0.4%, according to NSO data.

In an annual comparison, the production of consumer goods fell by 4.7%, intermediate products decreased by 3.5%, and energy slipped by 0.5% in December. However, the output of capital goods increased by 2.4%.

“The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is regarded as one of the most important measures of the economy,” as the figure describes the economic cycles of industry, the NSO remind in its methodological notes.

The full report including charts and visual representation of data is available for download at the website of NSO.

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