Gozitans are known to be hardworking people. This work ethic brushes off on our young people as well, as generally speaking Gozitan youths, when compared to their Maltese counterparts, tend to do better in educational terms. For the academic year 2014/15, there were 878 Gozitan students following full-time courses at the University of Malta, up from 706 in 2010/11. A further 242 were following part-time courses at the same institution. While the population of Gozo constitutes seven per cent of the population of the Maltese Islands, Gozitan graduates were 9.1 per cent of the total number of graduates of the University of Malta during 2014. While UoM graduates per 1,000 population during 2014 stood at 8.2 for Malta, the figure went up to 10.4 for Gozo. It is for this reason that in the last budget we allocated more funds for our young people studying in Malta. Their accomplishments make us very proud as Gozitans and we need to celebrate this achievement. It also makes us more eager to keep these youths in Gozo for the future of our small island. In 2014, we launched the Gozo Youth Council, whose mission statement is to act as a forum in Gozo to "develop, promote and advocate youth initiatives and policy making in the youth field".T

Even though the number of births has decreased, leading to a reduction in the number of students at both primary and secondary level from 3,632 in 2010 to 3,228 in 2015, the number of students who make it to vocational and tertiary education has continued to increase from 1,412 in 2010 to 1,635 in 2015. Gozitans know that life is that little bit harder for them because they live on a small island, and because of this they work harder to achieve more and make up for that stretch of water that separates them from the mainland. It is undeniable that more job and career opportunities exist for them in Malta and further afield. Gozitans are migratory and have always been: it is enough to watch the flags on rooftops on feast days and see the names on houses to know that lands afar have contributed to the housing stock on the island. But this also implies that when they can, Gozitans return home.

From a recent study conducted by my Ministry, results show that Gozitan students prefer to work in Gozo, and a second choice would be to migrate abroad rather than work in Malta. Many miss the way of life, the tranquillity and safety, which only Gozo can offer. Given the opportunity and an equivalent financial package to that offered elsewhere, many of the young people and professionals we have lost over the years would return to Gozo. The only way to do this is to attract foreign direct investment in high valued-added sectors, such as IT, education and health. This government is committed to improve accessibility, both digitally and physically, in order to create the right environment for this investment to venture to Gozo. Studies are underway for both types of accessibility: that is, a second fibre optic cable and an underground tunnel. No investment was attracted in the past decades, but we have managed to reverse that trend already and we will continue to work towards this aim. We have attracted RS2, a highly respected global payments software solutions provider, which opened its doors earlier this year, and Barts' Medical School, which is planned to welcome its first intake in September 2016. Furthermore, we have applied for EU funds to turn the ex-MDP building into a Creativity Hub while another area has been earmarked as an SME park. The infrastructure is needed to accommodate different economic activities where our young people can find employment and test their skills and set their enquiring minds roaming.  

Youths are the future of Gozo and we would like to work together with them to give Gozo back to them. Over the past years many brilliant young people and others not-so-young have left Gozo because the island could not offer them job opportunities or careers. We want to change that trend and see our people returning to Gozo to make it flourish into a prosperous economy. Let us work together for this to happen. Gozo belongs to all of us, young and old.

Dr Refalo is Minister for Gozo