In the upcoming days the electorate will be called upon to choose the government that will lead Malta for the next five-year period. This choice will reflect the way you and your families want to live. Altogether, this decision will influence our country’s future.
In the past four years our country has undergone enormous changes. The results achieved by the Nationalist Party in government, also thanks to the wise and brave decisions taken by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, led to a series of accomplishments that translated themselves into new breakthroughs for all. The opportunities will assist our younger generations, our children and youth to achieve more and as a result our country will also be achieving.
The mission to achieve these results was quite tough. However, together we managed to achieve what others thought as unthinkable or that we were not prepared to achieve. Together we joined the European Union and now we continued to further strengthen our integration in the European Union by adopting the euro as our currency. Together we are increasing positively economic growth. Now we are boasting of a four per cent GDP growth, a rate above the EU 27 average and even above the eurozone average.
Still this is not enough and the Nationalist Party wants to give more to this country. Through the electoral programme, published on Saturday 16 February, the Nationalist Party is declaring that together we will continue to succeed for the benefit of all the Maltese population.
The electoral programme presented by the Nationalist Party is an assurance that everyone of us may look towards a prosperous future and with the certainty that tomorrow will be better then today.
The electoral programme presents a cluster of ideas to continue the country’s process of change for the better. The targets for the country are now set. Thus it is in the people’s hands to decide if they want to achieve or start allover again. The government, therefore, should not be judged only on what has been achieved, but also on what will be achieved and therefore on its proposals for the future.
The vision of the Nationalist Party for the coming years is to assure that we continue taking advantage of our European Union membership so that together we reach our goals. Our aims are to excel in the provision of health services, in the educational sector, in the manufacturing sector and the services that surround it, in the tourism sector, in the financial services sector and in information and communications technology.
The measures that were taken by the government had a positive impact on all the above-mentioned sectors. Last year nearly three million passengers went through the Malta International Airport, to be more precise 2,970,634 or 278,615 more passengers an increase of 10.3 per cent. The year 2007 that has just ended was a record not only for the number of tourists that visited the island but also for number of nights that the tourists spent on Malta and also for the amount of money that was spent by these tourists whilst on their vacation in Malta.
The economic growth has been once again certified by Eurostat, the European Statistics Agency. The European Agency has upgraded Malta’s GDP growth to 4.3 per cent in the third quarter of last year, another proof that together we are reaching our goals.
That Malta had made such a progress could already be gauged by the fact that the country managed to reach the Maastricht criteria to join the eurozone as from 1 January this year. It did this in spite of the fears that the Malta Labour Party was trying to instill into our citizens that the country was not yet prepared for such a move. Within a few weeks, the changeover from the lira to the euro has been fully absorbed and nobody even speaks about the transition anymore.
However, the work is not yet finished. More companies are being attracted towards our shore to invest here. An Indian pharmaceutical company that will start operations from Malta is the latest example. In comments that appeared on this newspaper, Mr Maralidmaran claimed, “Malta is very important to us, we want to make it our European hub, our gateway to Europe.”
We are already proving ourselves in all the six sectors by attracting organisations and investors towards our shores. Nevertheless, we want to achieve more since we believe in the Maltese people’s abilities to achieve further.
Yes, together we can reach these goals. Although they might seem ambitious, I believe that like our achieved success we can work hard together to guarantee the best health services, the best education, the best working environment and provide the best working opportunities together with a better standard of living for all.
This country does not need a new beginning; a new beginning is for those that have failed, and for those that lack ideas. This government is looking forward to keep on moving towards achieving more on behalf of the Maltese people free of any discrimination be it political or otherwise.
David Casa is a Nationalist MEP
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www.davidcasa.eu