Forty-five years ago, Malta entered a new era of hope and expectations. Today, 45 years later, most of the expectations have been achieved, but the challenges remain. They are different from the ones we had in 1964, but they are certainly within our reach, just as much as we managed to survive the difficulties we had as a new independent nation.

Independence Day heralded a new beginning for Malta. Less than two decades earlier, Malta had been embroiled, together with the rest of Europe, in a war whose effects were still being felt at the time. But Malta was sure that, in spite of the obstacles that it would have faced, it was strong enough to face a future on its own.

The 1960s were a time when unemployment was a scourge, the tourism industry was still in its infancy and people were leaving the island to seek better pastures abroad. But the Maltese themselves believed that they could make it.

As a nation, we had survived centuries of occupation; and as a nation we knew we could overcome the initial obstacles and, through our own experience, our own mistakes and our own willingness to achieve what was best for us, we knew that we could have made it. And we did.

By believing in our capabilities, we realised that we had nothing less than anyone else. We started to build hotels, improved our infrastructure, and gradually turned Malta into the modern state we live in today. Yes, we had our tough times, our dark days, but with the motivation we had to preserve the good and correct the bad, we moved on.

And we must continue to move on. We must look back at our history to learn from our mistakes, but we must look ahead towards an even better future.

The obstacles we had in front of us in 1964 seemed insurmountable, but surmount them we did. The obstacles that we have ahead of us today also seem too high for us, but we can overcome them too.

The recession that has hit the whole world over the past year or so is certainly the biggest challenge that we have to face as a nation. As the economic wheel worldwide has started to turn again after a long lull, we must be ready to gain the necessary momentum as quickly as possible so as not to be left behind.

We live in a highly competitive world, one in which procrastination or hesitation are not tolerated. Any delay in the implementation of an idea might prove very costly, especially to a small island like ours.

The advantage we had that the recession took longer to reach our shores will be lost when we will possibly take longer to re-emerge from it. This is why we must not lose time.

We must continue to build on our strengths - tourism, IT, pharmaceuticals, financial services - and to do this we need a solid educational base.

Our membership in the European Union has given us an edge, but this will go wasted unless we understand that we must give 100 per cent and more to be able to survive.

We can all be proud of what we have been able to achieve in these last 45 years. But we cannot slacken. We must continue to move on.

We can all be proud of our history, but a better future beckons if we maintain our eagerness to achieve.