Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that Malta’s future lies in empowering people by investing more in education, saying this was the key to Malta’s success.
Speaking to representatives of trade unions and constituted bodies on the occasion of Worker’s Day, Dr Gonzi said that more investment in education would result in more work. Investment in human resources, Malta’s only natural resource, was essential for the country’s future.
This year’s 1 May is a double celebration: firstly because of the traditional Worker’s Day commemoration and also because of the second anniversary of Malta as a European Union member state. He said the coming year was crucial for Malta because important decisions will be taken on how the country will be spending the e805 million granted by the EU.
Dr Gonzi also mentioned the three fields on which the government is concentrating, prioritising them over all other issues: the economy, education and the environment. He said that some of the major challenges which our country is facing are already being tackled seriously and some of these are already giving the expected results. Others are still being tackled while others have not begun to yield positive results.
On the economy, Dr Gonzi said that the government is taking steps to increase innovation and the spirit of entrepreneurship in order to stimulate further the country’s economy.
He gave a special mention to the information technology sector, saying the government was concentrating its efforts on this sector because it wants to see Malta as the hub of IT in the Mediterranean. This is why the country needed to invest more in education, he said, adding that big projects in the IT sector are already coming Malta’s way. This, he said, will create a number of job opportunities in this sector.
Dr Gonzi said the government increased its benchmark in the field of education. “We do not want workers with just ordinary levels or advanced levels or diplomas or first degrees. We are looking at PhDs and other similar educational standards in order to meet to the demands of the future,” said Dr Gonzi.
“In the field of education we must urge our youths to diversify their careers. We must teach them that it is positive to move away from the so-called normal careers and choose more challenging ones,” he said.