The Budget Speech that Finance Minister Edward Scicluna will read out in Parliament on Monday is no secret at all.

Gone are the days when the minister remained huddled with his aides the entire weekend, and when the press had to be corralled in the basement of the ministry until the minister had finished his reading for fear that word would get out and people rush to buy whatever was going to increase in price before the night was out.

Today, on the contrary, the Budget Speech is not the final word at all. Under the EU governance rules, the Speech, or rather the government's economic programme for the coming year will be sent to the Commission and to the other Eurogroup Member States for their comments and views and it is only after these confirm their approval that the Speech comes back to Malta and is approved by the House of Representatives.

Such has been the change in the Budget process which is preceded by many presentations by the minister to the constituted bodies and to the public at large that we all (or rather those who are interested) know by now the salient points of the coming Budget.

The government's programme for the coming year builds on the good that was done over the past years, especially the growth that has been registered along with the fact that Malta did not suffer from the economic crisis as many other eurogroup members were. The banking sector has proved to be resilient and Malta is now back among the virtuous members of the group having exited from the Excessive Deficit Procedure, or the 'sin bin' for the second time in the short span of years that Malta has been in the euro.

Malta now has not just its deficit under control but is also taking steps to bring its debt under control too.

The past years have seen growth coming from sectors that previously did not figure much among Malta's strong points - the financial services sector, then the online gaming sector.

Growth here has been robust but, especially in the second sector mentioned, this can be a flighty sector which can easily be scared off.

It is for this reason that the preceding administration targeted the pharma sector and the aviation servicing sector as areas from where growth can be expected.

The present administration has already signaled it intends to open up two more sectors where growth can be had - health and education aimed at the peoples around us whose citizens are living through very dangerous times. Providing education and health services is thought as being a very attractive proposition to make.

As we have said in other contributions, there is yet another area which demands attention and providing for. It is a good thing the government has tackled the spread of Long Term Unemployment and brought it down by quantifiable amounts. However the government must also take into account the lately-revealed fact that the number of people at the risk of poverty has increased once again and also, as has been pointed out, the D and E sectors of the population are not benefiting from the growth that there has been in the economy.

Government has cut the main item of the government-induced costs on the population in general - energy prices -  but other government-induced costs keep growing up.

Government expenditure and employment have been on the increase which so far has been compensated by the growth of the economy but such increases are not linked to growth and will remain there even if the growth were to decrease.

Barring any (unlikely) negative reaction from the Commission and the Eurogroup, far-reaching decisions must come from us and from us only. It is still up to the country itself to plan ahead a sustainable future for itself.