Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1153076
08.08.19 12 OPINION George Mangion George M. Mangion is a senior partner of PKF Malta, an audit and consultancy firm | gmm@pkfmalta.com TWO years have passed since the or- ganisers of the "Follow the Entrepre- neur Investor Summit" chose Malta to host the event, which had previously always been held in the UK. It is now fit and proper that government agen- cies dig deep in their pockets to spon- sor this event again. With open arms, they welcome Ari- adne Capital, which hosted a two-day conference attracting a number of for- eign investors to bask in the summer heat at one of our prestigious hotels. As can be expected – protocol calls for the prime minister as the primus inter pares – to act as a keynote speaker. His words did not sound hollow when he exclaimed that our infrastructure is the island's Achilles heel. Notice the disruptive feelings many experience when driving through a never-ending road-widening spree that has exasperated the wits of all drivers (unless they can afford fully automatic GPS guided cars). A number of protestors last week- end demonstrated their heartfelt op- position to the planned widening of the Attard junction (aka Central link) where hundreds of mature trees will be felled to make way for wider roads. Regardless of protests, the prime min- ister is vocal on the need to solve traf- fic congestion. No prize for guessing that he dreams of replacing oil burning cars with electric ones. The spirit is strong yet the body is weak. Perhaps the pipe dream in the latest PN manifesto to construct an underground metro will torment us forever. The truth is that the PN enjoyed 25 years of incumben- cy yet it never generated surpluses to afford it. Back to the Investor Summit. Mus- cat stole the limelight in his keynote speech as he recounted that Malta was able to make important and positive steps particularly in the digital mar- ket. He said that government is work- ing on a national blockchain strategy. "We want to be one of the first in Eu- rope to have a strategy that will enable us to harness the technology in gov- ernment. We have ideas to use it for land registration and the health sec- tor," he said. In his words "The digital market is a big part of the EU's future. Malta is not a latecomer when it comes to dig- ital economy". A year later, MFSA has since pro- moted the concept of VFA agents (al- most 20 firms were appointed) yet it is early days for the big names in the Blockchain and Crypto domain to set up business. One of the expected drawbacks is the complete absence of local banks where they can open ac- counts. Today the buzz word is innovation. PKF has been active in this field and continues to attend international fora to attract deserving movers and shakers. To coincide with the Investor Summit, PKF hosted another event styled "Blueprint for Innovation". One of the keynote speakers was Gor Sargsyan, the President of Qbitlogic International, Atlanta (USA). This is a US-based company specialising in building multi-purpose approaches and tools that synergise the power of artificial intelligence and quantum computing to help humans build and protect software systems across vari- ous industries. Gor is currently based in Palo Alto California. One cannot ignore the immense contribution that researchers based in Silicon Valley have made towards cut- ting-edge technology. Other speak- ers included Stas Gayshan MD, CIC Boston, Joe Woods MD, Creolabs, Dr Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando Exec- utive Chairman MCST, Dr Leonard Bonello, Senior Associate Ganado Advocates, Matthew Caruana, Man- ager ZAAR Crowdfunding, Ing Joe Sammut, CEO LifeSciences Park, as well as speakers from MCAST and the University of Malta. The good news is that both polit- ical parties promised in their party manifesto to substantially increase investment in R&D, and consequently PKF thinks that its efforts to attract a world class organisation in this field does not come a moment too soon. The roadmap is an ambitious one - as European governments are in com- petition to attract international com- panies and inventors participating in quantum mechanics, fintech and blockchain technologies. Readers may ask what is quantum learning. The an- swer is that this involves research into machine learning algorithms which learn a desired input-output relation from examples in order to interpret new inputs. This is important for tasks such as image and speech recognition or strategy optimisation, with grow- ing applications in the IT industry. Understanding the inherent com- plexity of quantum research involves understanding how the laws of physics interact on information and computa- tion so as to tackle problems in related fields. This exemplifies the beauty of quantum research. In the not-so-dis- tant future, super-fast quantum com- puters will be a reality since by com- parison today's computer chips do not reach the breakneck speeds that are necessary to run quantum computers. In the past, researchers started in- vestigating the possibility that quan- tum computing can help to improve classical machine learning algorithms. Ideas range from running computa- tionally algorithms efficiently on a quantum computer to the translation of stochastic methods into the lan- guage of quantum theory. Ideally researchers in Malta could benefit from a funded research centre which among other things can explore the fruits of quantum mechanics. To learn the ropes, PKF visited Mas- sachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston USA, to explore links how to promote Malta as a poten- tial business accelerator and/or Life Sciences hub for innovators, inventors and entrepreneurs. It is interesting to note that the Massachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy (MIT) is a private research uni- versity in Cambridge, Massachusetts founded in 1861 - built in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States. Another interest- ing landmark was the Boston-based Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC). It was here that Android co-founder Rich Miner built his unique Google Android software. CIC also has a non-profit sister, the Venture Cafe Foundation (this pro- vides a Forum for venture capitalists to scout and help fund new talent). What is so special about CIC? The answer is that as an innovation hub it succeeded to attract world class start- ups which proved very supportive for the US economy through the genera- tion of premium jobs and its high val- ue-added inventions. Our ostrich mentality has to stop and there is no time to waste to catch up in the race to attract talent and surreptitiously turn the island into a nexus of superior minds in the Med. Seriously searching for an economic upsurge