What does the future hold with regards to the economy of Malta? We have lived through years of growth that now appear to be hollow – the much-acclaimed full employment is based on very slippery foundations.
The man who is today our minister of finance is the same one who in the past years urged us to get in more and more non-Maltese to fill in the jobs that were needed – not just collecting rubbish but also in restaurants and hotels.
As for the native Maltese (I am sorry but I have to make this distinction) the vast majority of the native Maltese have found an employment with the government. Even those who were unemployed have been roped in within a company run by the GWU which gets them off the unemployment register in exchange for a relatively low wage and a rather lax regime, or so it is said.
The native Maltese who are not employed by the government are a rather small minority, maybe by choice. The government has a huge power base since offering jobs is one of the inducements it can offer at election time. Other than those who resolutely refuse to be employed with the government, there are those who work in the financial services sector and with the private sector banks etc.
But this small minority is not enough to drive the economic machine of the country.
There is, of course, the vast construction sector and its allied sectors, which have nothing to do with the government. And the tourism sector of course. But the jobs here are impacted by decisions taken by the government.
The problem is that after splurging on jobs and promotions for the select few, the government now finds itself running a deficit and consequently now finds itself under pressure to reduce the deficit and get back to the virtuous way but without the leg-up that the selling of Maltese (thus European) passports used to afford it.
There is also any number of unemployed non-Maltese running around and making nuisance of themselves to people around them. It’s time for the authorities to see if these people have any right to remain in Malta.
With regards to the GWU scheme it is high time that the government commissions a thorough investigation before someone like the Audit Office makes an own initiative and addresses the issue.
Schools are breaking up for the summer hols and a number of school-leavers find themselves on the job market. It is up to the government to ensure these do not join the list of the unemployed and are helped to find jobs that give them a future.
On a wider level not so long ago Malta was made to follow the Communist theory of import-substitution which failed here as it failed elsewhere. For a number of years Malta’s economy grew and prospered on the back of an economy based to a certain extent on private enterprise.
But over these past years we have seen the public sector creep back and attract more and more people from the private sector. A close look for instance at Gozo shows that the public sector has now drained all the workers available and the private sector is finding it cannot compete.
Apart from all the other problems that Malta has – grey-listing, allegations of conspiracy with foreign criminal groups like the Mafia or Ndrangheta, serious structural problems in many sectors, etc – we cannot afford to disregard the important sector of a bloated civil service that is not delivering what the country expects from it.
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