“All the European Union officials attending (Saturday’s) eurozone celebrations, including European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the European Central Bank President Jean Claude Trichet, made it clear they were very impressed with how quickly Malta has moved forward in these last three and a half years,” Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.
Speaking in Zejtun, Dr Gonzi said that Malta’s economy and finances are moving forward and “we have passed the European test in a credible and sustainable way.” The euro is a very strong currency but it is not the currency itself which is important – what is crucial is that it will help Malta because it will lead to more investment and will give our people more employment opportunities, he said.
The euro is the second strongest currency and by endorsing it, Malta can attract more foreign investment. Dr Gonzi said the government was ambitious, but “we know that we are capable and that we are a successful people”. If the country had not taken up this opportunity it would have lost its competitive edge when compared to other nations who have the euro as their currency.
“The lesson to be learnt is that those who were telling us we are not capable were not right. We are equal to others and we must get rid of this inferiority complex some have. Saturday’s celebrations prove that by 2015 we can excel in all areas including IT, tourism, health, financial services and education,” he added.
“This was also the first time we celebrated with a national philharmonic orchestra thanks to the measures we introduced in the last budget, which marks yet another improvement initiated thanks to this government,” said Prime Minister Gonzi.
“We have managed to reduce the deficit and invest record amounts in health and education. In the field of education at least Lm1,700 (EUR3,961) was spent for each child per year.
In the health sector, 2007 was a great year especially thanks to the opening of Mater Dei Hospital that is providing such a high standard of free health care. Also, thanks to the breast screening facilities we are introducing for every Maltese woman, we will be able to catch any signs of breast cancer at the early stages,” added Dr Gonzi.
The government is also introducing the “pharmacy of your choice” scheme which made a great difference especially in the case of old people who do not have to queue for long at the polyclinics anymore to receive their medicines, but may collect them from the closest pharmacy of their choice. “We intend to provide this service in every locality,” he said.
Furthermore SmartCity will be providing at least 5,600 employment opportunities, including 2,600 posts for manual jobs such as cleaning, gardening etc. Last year was a record year in the field of tourism, thanks to the decision to open the way for low-cost carriers to operate to and from Malta. Air Malta had also been strengthened to be able to compete.
The government had also paved the way for the opening of more pharmaceutical companies and call centres, while there had also been investment in aviation services, financial services and IT.
The country’s finances were on solid ground and this enabled the government to reduce taxes to create more incentives for work opportunities. In a year, the number of jobs increased by 3,000, mostly in the tourism, financial, commercial, health and social sectors. The number of women working fulltime in Malta has also increased by 1,583 during 2007.
At the same time, the number of people in government employment had decreased by 600, Dr Gonzi said.
Even Mr Barroso mentioned that things have not moved forward by “coincidence”. They have improved because this government made the right decisions even if they were tough ones, he said.
Concluding, Prime Minister Gonzi thanked all the self-employed, saying that “although there are those who would like to tarnish their image with false accusations, they are truly appreciated for their cooperation during this historic moment for Malta.”