The recent publication of the joint report by the Lisbon council and Accenture entitled Jobs for the Future gives some clear indication as to what the government and business in the various EU States should be doing to promote job growth in the next few decades.

While a first reading of this report indicates that it is more relevant to the larger EU States such as the UK, France and Germany, it does have important recommendations for smaller countries like Malta. It is encouraging that some of the growth industries for the EU in general can, with some hard work, be attracted to Malta.

For instance, among the potential high-growth sectors in Europe identified in this report, one finds banking and insurance, information technology and certain specialised manufacturing industries such as pharmaceuticals and environmental technologies. Most important for us, travel and tourism is identified as one of the biggest growth areas for the future.

But direct foreign investment will not just flow into any country simply because they are in the EU club, as the present government has so often implied in the past few years. We need to get our house in order because we are seriously lagging behind in certain important areas where we need to excel if we are to be successful in winning over the interest of investors.

Education

Let me once again reiterate my concern about the poor standards of education that are seriously affecting our prospects of attracting future productive investment. I do this because the present administration is not being honest with the people, and is trying to ignore the realities of a failing educational system. It is not what we spend on education that counts, but the results obtained from such spending.

We continue to under perform not only in the attainment of basic educational standards, that are a prerequisite to employability, but also at the tertiary level, where we are not producing enough graduates in the sciences, engineering, mathematics or information and communications technology.

Unless we have a critical mass of graduates, we will fail to attract investors to our shores, and even risk losing the few we have because they will find it more rewarding to migrate to other EU countries, or even the USA, where such investors prefer to operate. We already have reliable anecdotal evidence that several high quality graduates are leaving the country to seek employment in more rewarding EU countries like Ireland and Britain.

Tourism

Our performance in tourism is another area for concern. Once again, the best one can say about the present government’s attitude to this important sector or our economy is that they are practising the policy of “benign neglect”.

Our tourist product needs a complete revamp because it has become stale and does not meet the requirements of today’s consumers. Like everything else, the tourism market is constantly changing. Europe remains the world’s most visited region, attracting 58 per cent of travellers globally, and tourism in Europe is expected to continue growing.

But changing demographics – more young and old travellers, smaller households and new holiday preferences – mean that we need to constantly update our offer for a holiday experience if we are to remain a country of interest to holidaymakers.

A future Labour government will give priority to strengthening the investment already existing in our country to ensure that its medium and long-term prospects will remain good. But we will also think outside the box and encourage the other stakeholders in our economy to do the same.

With a new Labour administration, benign neglect will be replaced with focused strategic thinking and a steely determination to implement policies that make us attractive to those who, through their investment, can create the jobs of the future.

Dr Mangion is deputy leader of the Opposition.