Jon Mallia is putting to shame the government and the public broadcaster for bringing us high-quality content which is supposedly delivered by the public broadcaster. PBS is a publicly subsidised financial wreck of an entity, sucking funds to produce shit content that does not sell, but Jon Mallia has successfully privately funded what is undoubtedly one of the best ever Maltese programmes in history.
Undoubtedly, my favourite Jon Mallia podcast so far is that with the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Marisa Xuereb. I think she is an incredible woman by our standards considering our commercial and political life is stifled with rent-seeking and corruption. She also comes from the fold of industrial capitalists rather than the commercial importers, so she is part of the minority of Maltese capitalists who actually produced something of value in this economy and left a net gain in it, in contrast to the monopoly importers who sell foreign stuff in the local economy and then spread their profits in real estate throughout Europe’s major cities.
I clamour in despair to have someone in my country like Marisa Xuereb whom I can proudly call my Prime Minister.
Hi Mark, thank you for your feedback. On importers, gone are the days when they had a licence to import specific products that granted them a monopoly. We operate in a very competitive free market. Everyone can import directly from abroad, even the consumer. So importers have a tough time competing, just like industrialists. Our small market size and limited transportation options make things particularly challenging for them. Most of what we consume and use is imported. So they fulfill an important function in the economy. Some of the success stories in emerging African markets are actually by importers who are managing to start logstical operations in these challenging countries. So even among importers, there are real entrepreneurs who are adding value to our economy and growing the global footprint of our businesses. Kudos to them.