The year has come to a close.
What a year, what emotions on this roller coaster year. After all the work put in during the early part of the year, we had an election victory on 8 March. It was a deserved win, in my opinion, after all the work done.
Concurrently, we had the adoption of the euro, that today is our stable currency. Again, it was a wise decision to adopt the new currency at that time. We would have otherwise been out in the cold, amid all this financial turmoil, with our old lira.
Nostalgia put away, and the European currency ushered in, gave us a security that was tested this year. In fact, the euro, plus the stability of our banks and their policies have avoided a financial disaster.
Our woes are those imported from other countries, mainly hitting our exports. The downtrend, both in the building industry and in the car industry, seem to be a common denominator in all European major countries.
This situation has been with Europe and the world for the better part of these past six months, while Malta tended to avoid it. Many say that in January, after the Christmas break, one will know the true picture, and if the barrel has, as yet, been scrapped. Hopefully, after a few months into 2009, this situation will get better, with a new president in the United States of America, and hopefully more projects coming on line, perhaps faster. All must see the common good and Opposition merely to oppose is not a good short-term or medium-term solution. More short cuts should be taken to get this impasse over as fast as possible.
Next year will soon be with us. What prospects? It has become increasingly difficult to forecast what will happen in 2009. Foreign partners are all cautious, risks tend to be less; however whoever wishes to venture out must find all the support from all quarters.
New projects must be undertaken and government or authority bureaucracy must stop, if not vanish, from this earth. Keeping progress or investment away is no solution.
Cutting a few corners to get where you want to be, faster, could be the solution, in today’s times.
Hopefully all get the message and form part of a revival, a worldwide revival that must and will start again, and that includes tiny Malta where we will probably get a slight slowdown but not a recession, and where, should things get functioning again abroad, our wheel of commerce will start turning the right way straight away.
A merry Christmas and a prosperous new year to all readers who patiently read our articles, hoping that the topics chosen were relevant. A thank you goes to the editor for his kindness and patience too.
Truly, this year seemed that flimkien kollox huwa possibli (together, everything is possible).
Robert Arrigo is a Nationalist MP