The political parties, the constituted bodies, the pundits, the media and the man in the street have now had their chance to comment about the Budget Speech read out in Parliament on Monday.

Except for the little interlude that no one, it seems, can be really certain which is the real speech, given there seem to have been two versions of it, the one read out by Edward Scicluna in the House of Representatives included many different items but, in our opinion, does not contain that strategic thrust the country waited for.

For that is after all what the Budget Speech should be about. We no longer look for what will be the prices of basic foodstuffs, as we used to do in the past. Even so, the 2016 Budget Speech contains innumerable traces of micro-management and too few general indications. It is also rather short of the macro-economic angle.

In our opinion, and maybe of analysts here and abroad, a real Budget Speech should tackle two basic issues:

-         Where the government wants Malta to be in future years, beyond the slogans and the simplifications, possibly with timeframes and other checkable indications;

-         The real and pressing issues that need to be addressed, now, and with urgency.

If we look back at this year's Budget Speech and also those before it, we notice that this administration speaks of being 'the best in Europe' but then fails to explain how.

To put it in a different way, there are all sorts of tables and classifications internationally and maybe one set of strategic targets could be eg to improve our competitiveness by so much and in this or that time frame. Or our placing in Ease of Doing Business.

As to the real and pressing issues, we all know what these are, for we spend the better part of the day grumbling about them. But the Budget Speech was woefully short of explaining in concrete terms what is to be done about them in a strategic manner.

Take traffic, for instance, which has shot up to the Number One priority given the chaos and worse during the rush hours. The Budget Speech failed to address this issue in a strategic manner, except the mention, outside the Speech, of experiments such as the so-called tidal lane traffic experiment, along with quite vague talk about road tunnels etc. Far more than mere talk is needed, and it is needed now, not in some years' time. This country is nearing gridlock.

Drastic and immediate measures are thus needed. For instance free public transport for all between say 7am and 9am and 4pm and 5pm. Such as a fleet of ferries in both harbours on either side of Valletta. And any and more measures until the gridlock is sensibly eased. That is what strategic thinking should be about.

The Budget Speech continued with the emphasis of past Budgets to wean people off the Long Term Unemployed lists and to increase the working population. But it is woefully silent about how to get the manufacturing sector, and the SMEs to upgrade and to improve, how to get them to become more competitive, to export more, etc.

It is completely silent about what comes up time and again in any survey of competitive edge with regards to Malta: the excessive bureaucracy that stifles anything. In the recent past, this issue was tackled but it resulted in yet another quango, another title, and no appreciable improvement. The same may be said of the penetration of digital means of communication in the government machine which is patchy and leaves much to be desired, with many offices preferring paper if not personal communication to email etc.

Overall, one must agree that the economy is doing well and Malta is experiencing substantial growth but this must not lead to any complacency.