The big success story in Europe for trade with China is Germany. Do you know how many trade envoys the German government has in China? Zero. ZERO. Instead, there are German chamber of commerce offices, paid for by the association of German chambers of commerce (that’s the AHK).

Cost to the taxpayer: zero.
Cost to private industry: whatever it costs to outfit and staff the offices.
Efficiency: It seems to be working.

Malta has a Chamber of Commerce. Indeed, it has duplicate structures with significant overlap. But no. It’s the government that has to do everything, and the taxpayer that has to pay for everything. And they call it liberalizmu fl-ekonomija.

Where is the real big money in Malta? In the government coffers? No. It’s the private entrepreneurs which are the millionaires. And yet they want the government to provide something they should be doing themselves.

I hear Joseph Muscat wants bitcoin. And he thinks he’s being clever.

He’s one of the better boxers in his division. Lightning-fast jabs, nice clean technique, and excellent footwork.

It’s still not a brand. It’s a jurisdiction. Any idiot with as little as a square foot of independent territory can do it.

So she kisses ass, another civil servant lackey. Not great credentials to be proud of.

Some sell raw materials and some sell manufactured goods. Others sell services.

Either way, you need the right legal framework in place, the rule of law, a clean reputation, and stability.

See, this is what gets me about the Nationalist Party’s legacy. All this so-called economic policy stuff they’re so proud of is just bullshit. All it boils down to is jurisdictions, namely a no-questions-asked jurisdiction.

“Brand” Anywhere, just to pre-empt the tsunami of anger that my comment will provoke, in the normal world (i.e. outside Malta’s fantasy dreamworld) means Made In Somewhere. The only thing made in Malta here are the laws.

I so agree. Ms Farrugia is a bystander in this whole mess. She is an honest, hardworking and skilful diplomat. I worked with her and know this first hand.

It is not that she did not want to answer questions on her status. She knows that if she breaks the civil service rules, she will be severely reprimanded because she is not protected like political appointees Sai Mizzi, Ray Azzopardi, and all the other crony ambassadors and consuls.

What a disappointment to learn that she is now, apparently, serving as first secretary at the consulate-general in Shanghai. It sounds like she was ordered to “take one for the team”.