Co-operation in the textile industry in Malta

Abstract

World population is ever-growing at a fast rate. Such a rate of growth has certainly characterized this century, and, although during recent decades, there have been persistent warnings from various quarters to control this "abnormal growth" in world population, this is still on the upward trend. Second only to food production, it is the textile industry that has had to expand enormously in order to cater for this massive growth in population. Luckily, unprecedented technological advances have enabled the output of the textile industries all over the world to increase, through higher productivity and reduced unit costs. Since textiles provide a basic need for human welfare it is quite natural to witness the development of such an industry among the first in any developing economy Malta has bean no exception. In the past, Malta and Gozo abounded in small cottage industries, some of which are still in operation today, such as weaving and lace-making. Cotton was even cultivated in Malta and for many years it provided a stable income to many families and foreign currency earnings to the economy. One might mention that, during the American Civil War in the middle of the last century, cotton production in Malta increased tremendously, bat suffered a set-back when the war was over and exports declined sharply. There is even today a number of small family concerns on the Island, which have for many years, prior to the first Five Year Plan, provided a solid base for the development of the making up sector of the present textile industry in Malta. Family-run tailoring shops in every town and village ensured the existence of a useful pool of skilled labour which was later to be partly absorbed by several shirt making establishments. Unfortunately, all these manufacturing units were of a very small size and catered exclusively for the home market. Prior to 1959 no drive was ever made to attract new industries setting up in Malta. The reason for this was that Malta was considered useful as a British Naval Base with the Services being the foremost employer of Maltese labour. But when the Navy started streamlining their Fleet to meet new defence requirements, a number of people directly employed by the Navy and indirectly employed by the then Naval Dockyard became redundant. It was this threat which mainly made it imperative on the Government to take serious steps to avoid massive unemployment. A result of such action was the 1959 Aids to Industries Ordinance. This scheme still in operation today offers various financial and fiscal incentives to prospective foreign and local promoters to set up manufacturing, horticultural and touristic concerns on the Island, with the aim of creating new employment opportunities, to counteract the effects of the impending British Forces Run-Down. Typical of developing countries, it was the textile industry which was among the first to be attracted to Malta. The relatively cheap labour costs and abundant labour force prevailing in Malta, proved a valuable additional inducement, which was thought capable of rendering the country's textile firms to compete with Asian countries for the American and Europ2an markets. These firms generally are labour intensive and the Government welcomed them in their entirety at the beginning of the industrialisation drive, when by far the greatest problem was that of creating jobs for the thousands of unemployed. A social consequence of the development of textile firms in Malta has been the increasing emphasis laid on female labour, and the attraction of female workers onto the labour market. It is agreed by nearly everyone that this phenomenon assisted considerably towards the attraction of other industries to Malta, and towards the achievement of today's stage in our economic development.