MaltaToday survey | University-educated reject ‘Dubai model’

Three quarters of university-educated respondents disagree with the idea that Malta should emulate Dubai’s development model.  

Overall the survey shows 37% in favour and 44% opposed to emulating Dubai in development policies.

It was Prime Minister Joseph Muscat who in June proposed Malta as “the next Singapore or Dubai”. Dubai has also been invoked as a model to be emulated by lobbies favouring luxury development, high-rise buildings and land reclamation and as a model to be rejected by environmentalists.

The survey reveals an educational divide between those with a higher education who largely oppose emulating the rich emirate and those with a secondary or primary education who tend to see Dubai as a model.

The Dubai model is rejected by the university-educated (75%) and by a lower margin by those with a post secondary-education (55%).

But the model is favoured by a relative majority of secondary (43%) and primary-educated (38%) respondents.

The survey also shows that over 55-year-olds are more likely to favour emulating the Dubai model while those aged between 35 and 54 are the most opposed.

The survey also shows that the university educated are more likely to associate Dubai with artificiality (12.5%) than the general population (3.5%).  On the other hand while 6% of the population associates Dubai with beauty none of the university educated respondents made this association. This suggests different aesthetic sensibilities between respondents of different educational levels.

The survey also shows that university-educated respondents are the only group to view Chinese investment in Enemalta negatively. 

Agreement with Chinese investment is highest among those with a post-secondary and secondary level of education. 

Agreement with Chinese investment is lowest among those under 34 years of age, but this segment also includes the highest segment of undecided.

University educated respondents are more likely to associate China with communism, economic power, human rights violations and cheap labour and products.