Malta performed worst in the macroeconomic environment, labour market efficiency, and innovation “pillars” of the report. Do you agree with this assessment, and what steps do you feel are needed in these areas?

At the onset, it must be pointed out that Malta still performs amongst the top-50 world nations in terms of competitiveness – which is still a feat for a relatively young, smaller nation in the global community. As a population, we should still be proud of our achievements. This year’s report by the WEF gives Malta high scoring in a number of key areas, including in financial services, and, despite a level of regress – on which the Nationalist Party has expressed its concern, it still ranks amongst top nations in terms of health and education.

It is true that Malta has registered a relatively high economic growth when compared to its peers. However, when looking in detail at those numbers, the reality is that over a third of economic growth – a very high amount in any situation – is originating from the public sector. Even worse, more than half the growth is in increased salaries originating from the public sector. Two clear confirmations that highlight Malta’s economic deficiency, the lack of investment and creation of the necessary new jobs by the private sector. Government’s  “solution” has been the engagement of 3,600 people in less than two years.

Unfortunately, this is the result of a Government which still lacks a clear and coherent strategy for the economy – while one-off projects which have been announced might yield some temporary results, I fear that there is no general strategy, which then is used to define specific initiatives to address the problematic areas. In particular, we have not seen any specific new incentives introduced to support young businesses in innovating their products or services, nor have we seen an effort to attract new niches – in line with previous successes with digital gaming or the pharma industry to name of few.

At a macroeconomic level do you share the WEF’s poor opinion of Malta’s low level of saving, as a % of GDP, and its high level of government debt, as a % of GDP? Do you think that more needs to be done here or is the government currently implementing the right measures?

Unfortunately, this is one major red light to which Labour is responsible for. Despite its promises in terms of financial stability, over the past months, debt and deficit levels seem to have gone haywire. Malta’s deficit and debt levels have continued to spiral out control in the first seven months of the year. Data published by the NSO shows that deficit figures indicate that Malta will be above the 3% mark by the end of the year with the deficit going up by €309 million, which is substantially higher than what should have been achieved at this point of the year. At this point the deficit last year was €51 million less. As a result, the Labour Government has now increased Malta’s debt by €400 million.

Ranking “Labour market efficiency” Malta scores badly for the number of women in the labour force, as a ratio to men.  What more needs to be done to address this?

Obviously one needs to look at where we have started from. Over the years we have seen significant improvement – a culture shift rather.. Incentives introduced by the previous administration – most notably year tax breaks for mothers returning to work, have been highly successful. Thousands of women have returned to work, or have joined the labour force for the first time. Successive investment in child care facilities and programmes for children, are yielding benefits. Clearly, Malta is still catching up with its top competitors.

What I fear is that more women are willing to work, but have not so far found the opportunity to do so – unfortunately we have seen a slow-down in the private sector, which certainly did not help the prospects of women.

 In the pillar of “Financial market development” Malta is scored badly against the “Legal rights index”. Are you confident that suitable legislation exists to protect investors and other market participants?

Over the past years Malta as build a reputation as a strong financial services jurisdiction, which has gained credibility amongst its international peers. We have seen the local authority, the MFSA, taking severe regulatory action against firms which had mis-sold investments. I understand that the MFSA is currently undergoing an important revision of the current framework of conduct of business to take further into account the needs and expectations of financial services consumers. As an Opposition, we support Government’s efforts at setting out requirements that significantly enhance consumer protection.