Saving the book industry – Aleks Farrugia

The minister of finance rightly acknowledged that if this country wants to look ahead towards viable and sustainable growth, a revision of the government’s economic policy is due.

Recent economic history shows that small-scale, high-end, specialised industry has been the most resilient sector of the Maltese economy since independence. In my humble opinion, that lesson should not be overlooked in the drafting of any future economic policy.

Over the past 60 years, such industries have weathered the storms of international crises and kept contributing significantly towards the creation of jobs and economic stability. This, however, is not an article about economic policy.

Instead, I want to make an argument about industries that the state ought to consider ‘essential’ (as happens in France, Finland and Sweden); not necessarily from an economic point of view, but because of the fundamental role they play within the wider scope of providing the state with its identity.

Such industries deserve the protection of the state since their distinctiveness often makes them particularly vulnerable to unfavourable shifts in the economic climate.

The book industry is a case in point. As the...