Ivan Ebejer
The Gozo Regional Development Authority (GRDA) recently published a policy note outlining a framework to develop a startup ecosystem on the island.
The ambition is clear and the timing is right: too many Gozitan graduates are leaving for Malta not because they want to, but because they feel they have no real choice.
Graduate retention is, in fact, the central thread running through the entire framework, the diagnostic starting point from which every subsequent proposal follows. The document deserves credit for naming this challenge honestly and for attempting to do something about it.
The startup framework identifies some genuinely important opportunities. It correctly argues that Gozo should not try to copy larger innovation hubs but instead play to its own strengths: its size, quality of life, community ties and the flexibility that comes from being an island still early in its economic transformation.
It makes a smart case for repurposing what already exists, including the Innovation Hub, the heliport and the hospital, rather than demanding expensive new infrastructure.
The recognition that digital nomads could be ecosystem contributors rather than just tourists is a refreshing shift in perspective. And its warning against fragmented implementation reflects a hard-won understanding of how well-intentioned regional initiatives most commonly fail.
But a vision, however well-articulated, is not yet a plan. And this is where the document leaves several important questions unanswered.
Where should Gozo start?
The framework presents a wide range of proposals at roughly equal weight, with no clear indication of where to concentrate effort for maximum early impact.
Whether this reflects a deliberate choice to keep options open, perhaps because the document is intended as a starting point for wider discussion rather than a finalised plan, remains unclear from the text itself. Either way, identifying a clear starting point will be the critical next step.
A useful way of framing this is to apply a systems thinking approach which helps to understand how complex initiatives succeed or fail based on the relationships between their parts.
One of the approach’s central insights is that complex systems contain leverage points: places where a well-timed intervention sets everything else in motion.
The practical question for Gozo is which intervention to act on first.
A flagship accelerator cohort with high visibility and strong mentoring, or the attraction of an anchor institution such as a research centre or specialised training provider, are examples of potential concrete starting points that could give the strategy a visible centre of gravity and generate the momentum needed to attract further investment and talent.
More than bricks and mortar
The document correctly identifies that graduates default to Malta employment, and it acknowledges the importance of role models and mentoring, going so far as to sketch a mentoring network drawing on local entrepreneurs, diaspora connections and international specialists.
But neither is developed into a delivery structure with clear coordination, resourcing or accountability ‒ an illustration of a broader pattern in which naming a good idea is treated as sufficient, when in practice good ideas need deliberate design to take hold.
Taking a behavioural economics lens, which examines how people actually make decisions as opposed to how we assume they do, offers a sobering insight here. Good infrastructure alone does not shift deep-seated habits and social norms.
Building a better ecosystem without also redesigning the environment in which people make career choices risks repeating the experience already visible at the Innovation Hub, which despite its potential remains underutilised.
Changing entrenched default choices requires sustained and structured effort: examples that could be considered include a high-profile, recurring showcase of Gozitan startup success stories that makes entrepreneurship feel normal and achievable; practical bridging support for first-time founders navigating the early months; and a genuine safety net for those who try, stumble and need a credible path back.
The framework already references educators and student organisations as channels for outreach; building a dedicated behavioural change programme around them, rather than leaving their role implicit, would translate good intentions into actionable steps.
The ferry in the room
Transport connectivity receives almost no treatment in the framework, and the Gozo-Malta ferry does not appear once in the document.
This is a significant gap, because connectivity is arguably the single most practical constraint on Gozitan economic life.
Every proposal in this framework, from attracting international talent to enabling founders to meet investors and partners in Malta to making the Gozo Showcase Office in Malta function as intended, is directly affected by the reliability, cost, frequency and capacity of the crossing.
A startup ecosystem strategy cannot treat this as someone else’s problem.
The framework’s next iteration should include a dedicated section assessing the impact of connectivity on startup ecosystem development and making an explicit case, at national and EU level, for treating it as a first-order economic development priority rather than a peripheral infrastructure matter.
A significant opportunity and fortunate timing
One further point deserves mention, offered in fairness rather than criticism.
On June 10, 2026, just weeks before this policy note was published, the European Commission adopted its first-ever ‘Strategy for EU Islands’, covering all EU islands, including Malta and Gozo.
The near-simultaneous timing means GRDA can hardly be faulted for not referencing it. But the opportunity it represents is too important to leave unacknowledged.
The EU strategy explicitly targets entrepreneurship, economic diversification, connectivity and innovation on islands, language that maps almost precisely onto GRDA’s own objectives.
Aligning the Gozo startup framework with this new EU strategy, and positioning Gozo to access the significant funding instruments and institutional support it is designed to unlock, should now be treated as an immediate priority.
None of this should obscure what GRDA has achieved.
Producing a serious, evidence-informed policy note of this kind is itself a meaningful step forward for Gozo’s institutional capacity.
The direction is right. The sectors identified are plausible. The instinct to focus rather than scatter resources is sound.
Gozo’s young graduates, whose career choices set this whole agenda in motion, deserve a framework that matches their ambition.
So does the wider community of founders, returnees and newcomers who will ultimately have to build it.
The foundations are here. The harder work of turning direction into delivery now begins.
Ivan Ebejer is an economist and management consultant specialising in decision-making and strategy. A more detailed analysis of this policy note is available in the author’s LinkedIn newsletter.
