Few good things happen just by luck. Most in fact need careful planning and after they happen they need to be sustained.

Even to win a mega-lottery, which is the ultimate in good fortune for some people, you need to plan. If you don’t buy a ticket you can hardly win and if you don’t check the winning numbers so that you can cash in, then your good fortune goes unnoted and is lost. Even if you do win and claim the prize money, unless you handle your new situation carefully, you end up losing the money and sometimes even your way of life and happiness.

This is exactly Malta’s position and that of its leaders. At the moment the economy is stable, tourism is at its healthiest and employment figures are still among the best throughout the EU and this is all due to good planning. Nothing happens by chance—all good things are the result of a structured and well-thought-out strategy.

Malta’s results as a tourist destination are all due to good strategies. Yes, we did win a grand lottery in the first place—we have a country that is beautiful, the climate is mostly mild and comfortable and we have some treasures that for our size should make us terribly proud. Our islands are awesome and many foreigners have said so since time immemorial.

The beauty of the country is what we can call our prize—we, the present inhabitants of the Maltese islands, have been given this prize by God, nature and our ancestors and even by some despotic but art-loving invaders and colonisers. However, we need to look after our lottery winnings and so far we have not only done this but we have also improved it and made it work for us and for our children.

Take our blue limpid seas. None of us have made it what it is today—we found it there. But by continuously working on a structured plan we have made it better. Long years of work, of treating all our sewage before disposing of it in the sea, have made our seas clearer and cleaner. We were careful, we now have blue-flagged beaches all over the island and boast some of the best beaches in the Mediterranean. That is a great certificate from the EU that is a result of our planning, which in turn has resulted in more visitors flocking to our shores.

Our plan has been to keep our country working and our shores welcoming. Throughout these last years we have been very active in attracting tourists from all over the world to come and appreciate the riches found here. Through its various entities, like MTA in conjunction with a number of private organisations and firms, government embarked on a continuous drive to get people here to enjoy themselves and go back home with a clear message. That message is that Malta is not just a place renowned for its fortifications, churches and limpid seas, but also a place that is hospitable and which offers dream holidays in a safe environment.

Yes, holidays are dreams and what we give visitors who come to Malta is a part of a dream which requires hard work to be achieved—and it is thanks to the PN that this dream is being offered. The success of Malta in the tourism field is another sure endorsement of the way the country has been led for these last years.

We need more of this—maybe with a few less hiccups and potholes—but Malta does not need a change. What it needs is consolidation of the lottery winnings we have been enjoying these last years. Long may we live on in serenity and prosperity.

 

Dr Mario Rizzo Naudi is a Nationalist Party candidate on the fourth and fifth districts