“We want growth to be sustainable and we want the wealth that we create to be fairly distributed in our society because we believe that the economy should work for the people and not the other way round,” Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil said today.

Addressing a conference organised by EY, Dr Busuttil said he strongly believed that the past 11 years have transformed Malta’s economy beyond recognition - a true root-and-branch-overhaul - and “we are now reaping the fruit of a clear vision but also the fruit of a tough endurance test that we had to pass both in the run-up to our eurozone membership as well as during the international financial and economic recession.”

The Opposition Leader also welcomed the fact that the current administration has kept the economy moving in the same direction as the previous one and this should serve us a lesson.

When speaking about the results of EY attractiveness survey, Dr Busuttil said that the results showed that in the past few years, especially in 2011 and 2012, Malta was very attractive for foreign direct investment and for business. These very good results came, after the international economic and financial crisis. He added that results this year have caught up with the levels of 2011 and 2012. He said that foreign direct investment is not a one-man race and we must overcome very harsh competition.

During his speech Dr Busuttil said that Malta has passed mid-term in its electoral cycle. “The Opposition is changing gear and we want to become an Alternative Government. It is with this in mind that last week, for the first time ever for any Opposition in Malta, we published a pre-budget document.” He added that he believes in an open Government and he is leading an open Opposition

He said that there is no doubt that the economy is continuing to register steady growth, “that’s good and I welcome that but I want growth to be sustainable and not fuelled by practices that are unsustainable, because this could become a major headache when the going gets tough.”

Dr Busuttil gave the example of Malta’s GDP growth which is being fuelled by a higher than normal Government expenditure. “I would prefer the Government to unleash the potential of the private sector to the full rather than play itself such an active role in the economy through greater public expenditure.”

He said that  whereas unemployment is going down the 25-year-long trend of decreasing the head-count in the public has been reversed. He emphasized that  since 2013, Government has increased its own workforce by more than the manufacturing, transportation, wholesale, retail, financial services, construction, accommodation andfood services put together. “This decision comes at a significant cost to taxpayers who have to foot an additional bill of no less than €100million on public service salaries alone.”

Dr Busuttil said that Malta has painstakingly built a solid reputation over a quarter of a century. We cannot lose this because of poor governance. We need to stamp out corruption because this is not just bad for business but also for our country’s reputation. He said that, “this is why, before this year is out, I will announce a major set of proposals  so you will all know clearly where I stand on good governance.

Speaking about funds he said that Malta has had a good run with EU funds. "We used them for our infrastructure, our competitiveness and our human resources. And they are also proving handy to help us reduce our public deficit - without EU funds our public finances would look far less healthy. We must prepare from now for the day, in 2020, when this bonanza will come to an end and we will become net contributors to the EU budget.”

When speaking about tax harmonization he said that it is not state secret that many countries have been gunning at our tax system. “I am all for an every closer union in Europe because we stand to benefit greatly from that, but not even the United States of America has tax harmonisation; why should we in the EU?” So I pledge my full support to the Government at EU level to defend our turf even as we do so, we cannot live in denial and we must therefore have a Plan B, for the longer term.”

Photos Domenic Aquilina