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from the Editor in Chief Design business as usual Few were those who in 2019’s fourth quarter were not concerned about the future of their liveli- hood. This is particularly true for businesses working directly within those spheres encircling the finance industries; property, construction and interiors being one (or three) of them. A terrible trend within ailing industries is that R&D and marketing budgets are reduced: it is often forgotten that such a short-sighted strategy would have undeniable and long-term negative effects upon one’s brand positioning as well as direct sales, but this trend is understandable as one’s need to survive the day-to-day running costs will inevitably supersede long term stability. Thankfully, this does not seem to have occurred, which proves that our property-related entrepreneurs have both the vision and the capability of weathering storms. As publishers of Design & Build, our finger lies directly on the industry’s throbbing pulse, and I therefore reckon that we are a good gauge on its mood swings. The truth is that those micro enterprises and SMEs we spoke to said that they hardly ex- perienced a slowdown (and I’d like to think that our customers’ continued presence within the pages of Design & Build has had something to do with this), whilst some of our larger customers did express concern that their order books were not filling up with high-output projects at the same pace as in the year’s previous quarters. And yet, said storms seemingly did not materialise. Without going into the remit of whether one ought to continue a retrenchment strategy (we think not), Malta’s performance ratings are still going strong. As an example, the DBRS (the Dominion Bond Rating Service, the Toronto global credit rating agency) has confirmed Malta’s ‘A’ rating for its continued economic success despite “recent political turbulence.” And now that said turbulence has significantly calmed, and also bearing in mind that the European Commission is expecting Malta’s economic growth over the next two years or so to be the highest in the EU, perhaps our businesses ought to revise their strategies and continue gearing for heady growth. Jason Attard Published by: a member of iMNG Ltd No. 50, Dun Victor Cilia Street, Ħ a ż - Ż abbar ZBR1791, Malta Tel.: [phone] | EMail: - [email protected] Managing Publisher & Editor in Chief Art Director Jason Attard Jason Attard Content Writing John Portelli Maria Vella Galea Photography and Imagery Effective Marketing Andrii Zmiievskyi Print Printit © All rights reserved. The Publisher’s written consent must be obtained before any part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means whatsoever. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the editor or publishers. Whilst every care has been taken in compiling contents, the editor and publisher cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. You are reminded of your right to refuse receipt of this publication and/or our other products or services by sending such requests in writing to iMNG Ltd., signed by the person refusing receipt. WWW.DESIGNANDBUILD.COM.MT ISSUE 10 9