I refer to the article titled Gozo contribution to GDP reaches 5.8% (TMID, 31 December).

Your article gives the wrong impression that in 2006 the Gross Domestic Product for Gozo grew to 5.8 per cent of the national one.

Indeed the GDP for Gozo vis-a-vis that of Malta has been continually declining since 1999 when it stood at 6.3 per cent. As a matter of fact, the government has been boasting for years now that 10 per cent of the European Union funds for Malta under its 2004- 2006 Budgetary Programme were allocated to Gozo to help the island catch up with the level of development of the larger island.

We now have an official proof that the magnanimity (sic) of the Maltese government towards Gozo did not give positive results. The development of Gozo today lags further behind that of Malta than it did in 2003, the year immediately before EU accession. A simple analysis of the data given in the NSO release the newspaper was quoting from, shows that in 2006, after three years of EU membership with Dr Gonzi as Prime Minister and with Giovanna Debono as Gozo Minister, our island fell even further behind Malta’s level of development.

Let me give some important indicators.

Whereas in 2003 the Gross Domestic Product for Gozo, at market prices, was 6.34 per cent that of the island of Malta, in 2006 it went down to 5.8 per cent.

Whereas the GDP for Gozo during the same three years grew by 11.8 per cent, that for Malta grew by 15.5 per cent.

Whereas the Gross Value Added, that is earnings and profits, at basic prices, increased by 8.7 per cent in Gozo, it increased by 12.3 per cent in Malta.

Whereas the level of employment in absolute terms in Gozo in 2003 was 6.88 per cent that of Malta, in 2006 it fell to 6.73 per cent.

Some other worrying points on the Gross Domestic Product and Employment come out of the same NSO release.

The Gross Domestic Product at market prices for Gozo registered an increase of e30.8 million (Lm13.2 million) for the three-year period 2004-2006. e10.9 million (Lm4.7million) or 35.4 per cent of this increase came from taxation less subsidies. Indeed, the tax burden has been getting heavier year in year out since 1999 when indirect taxation less subsidies amounted to 12.3 per cent of Gozo’s Gross Value Added. By 2006 this rate went up to 16.8 per cent, an increase of 4.5 per cent.

Gozo’s level of employment relative to that of Malta has since 2003 fallen in agriculture, fisheries, industry, construction, financial services, real estate, renting, business activities and other services activities.

All the above is the result of the policy of drift for Gozo adopted by the present government and of a corrupt network of alliances that has been created.

Gozo needs an integrated development plan implemented in a clean environment to get out of the doldrums brought about by the present Government.

That is what the Labour Party is promising. That is what a Labour government will soon be doing.

Dr Anton Refalo MP, LLD

opposition spokesman for Gozo