The government is in a tight spot economically, with criticism not only now starting to come from the general public, but with more and more businesses now concerned at the way in which the country is going.
80% of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) believe that Malta is moving in the wrong direction, according to the results of the SME Barometer for the third quarter of 2023 that were presented by The Malta Chamber of SMEs on Friday.
This is a 16% increase when compared to the results in the second quarter of this year.
SME Chamber President Paul Abela said that government must make up its mind on whether to close the tap on foreign labour, with businesses complaining of an employee shortage that can only be solved by bringing foreign labour to the country.
He said that everyone wants to "change the economy" but the most worrying issue is the inability to find workers, and government must make up its mind on whether it wants to put the brakes on the number of foreign workers coming to Malta.
The main contributors to business concern with regards to the national situation across all sectors was the level of corruption, the lack of good governance and increase in inflation, consistent with the concerns recorded from the previous quarter (Q2 2023), the SME Barometer showed. Fourth ranked was overpopulation, a newly presented choice.
The SME Barometer showed an increase in respondents who said that it would not be a good time to invest in the next 12 months.
There are a number of issues to pick at within these survey results.
Chief amongst those is the population question. The government now finds itself in a ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ situation which is quite clearly of its own making.
In the first instance, you have businesses who are struggling to find the necessary workforce numerically in order to staff themselves adequately enough to exist – a symptom of an economic vision which based itself on pure numbers when it comes to population.
In the second instance, though, you have a general public which has very heavy criticism for how Malta’s population has skyrocketed due to the importation of Third Country Nationals in their thousands in order to populate the workforce – a symptom of the same aforementioned economic vision.
It feels as though if the government is indeed serious on its clampdown on foreign workers coming to Malta – and it does appear to be – then that is going to come at the cost of some businesses having to simply cope without having the necessary workforce.
This in itself will have a knock-on effect on the Maltese economy, at least until a transition into whatever new economic plan is being envisaged will come to pass.
When it comes to other business concerns, the blame for corruption and lack of good governance lies squarely at the government’s feet. There are no others who can be scapegoated for this.
These surveys all hold indications that the government has laid its bed in the last few years, but now must face the consequences of lying it – and it will be businesses and the general public who face any consequences with it.