Economy Minister Silvio Schembri believes that the partisan political environment in Malta is keeping people who can contribute away from entering politics.

The minister was asked by this newsroom whether the way politicians from the two major political parties act towards one another publicly, with almost a sense of animosity, is taking its toll, and about the lack of cross party collaboration. The minister said that the most disillusioned thing for him in politics personally is precisely this. 

"I speak a lot about it. One of the objectives I tried to achieve, and to a certain point achieved, with the Vision 2050 exercise was to try and reduce this and that we rise above partisan politics." 

He said that this environment is keeping people who can give a contribution in politics away, as they do not like this environment. 

"I don't think it is the sole responsibility of the parties, it is also the responsibility of the media which plays an important role," he said.

"I understand that the model of the media is that they need to sell, and maybe negative news, and news that creates more conflict sells more than positive news and news where there is agreement. A lack of trust in the political system in general is also reflecting in the lack of trust in the media. So yes there is a big responsibility on us, but not on us alone."

He also said that it takes two to tango, saying that on Vision 2050, while he and his PN counterparts in public say they agree on things, "there is a constant attack to try and discredit the vision" on the PN's media. 

"Aside from conflicting messaging, it doesn't help in the harmony we are trying to build. There is a lot where one can discuss, but lets discuss about who is better and most capable to implement that vision, not try and discredit that vision now if we agree with it. That is not mature politics. We have a responsibility to continue showing mature politics, but it needs to go further than political parties, including from the media in terms of what is media worthy, what is truly in the interest of the people."

One of the aims of Vison 2050 is to move away from just measuring success of the country through the GDP. 

He said that government listened to the people, "who told us that the absolute majority advanced forward... but there are those who did so not at the same rate as the GDP growth. So we as a country need to measure our success not only with the GDP. The GDP is a good measure of economic activity, and thus the wellbeing of the people, but it does not take into account all elements."

He said the government will look at a number of other indexes, mentioning "the UN's Human Development Index, which identifies the effect on health, education, longevity." He said there is also the median disposable income, which refers to the middle point of the income distribution, where half of the population earns more and half earns less. "Then there is the overall life experience, which is a measurement beyond GDP, measuring how people truly feel, how content they are in their jobs, with their relationships, with the open spaces in the country, in their lives."

He said that these are challenges people speak about, "but we are not afraid of challenges. We could have easily not done this, but we don't want the vision 2050 exercise to be superficial. We truly believe that this plan will being about a difference in people's lives."

The war and Vision 2050

Asked whether the recently launched Vision 2050 could be affected by the war, and whether the vision takes into consideration the impact of geopolitical situations such as this, Minister Schembri said that "planning long-term doesn't mean that nothing is going to happen around the world."

"The concept of what we in economics call Ceteris paribus (all other things remaining constant) in truth does not exist. But it doesn't mean that, because you fear something happening or if there is a possibility of something happening in the next 24 years, you don't plan long-term."

"This is like a family making plans. At the back of your mind you know that God forbid something can happen, but it doesn't mean those thoughts should stop you from planning for the best future. Its the same for the country. The thoughts of wars, incidents, situations that will put pressure on the economy and the country will always be there, but that is why you have to plan, to have the necessary resources in place so that when there is trouble, and trouble will always come, you would be in a strong position to prepare for it."

He said that nobody predicted the pandemic, but because the government had been planning economically, during the Covid pandemic the country kept moving relatively normally compared to others. "We said we had a cushion through which we could take on debt for the country to continue moving, but that was good debt. So much so that after two years it recuperated. From a situation where we were close to the 60% debt to GDP ratio, today we are at 46%. We did not go for austerity measures like other countries had. At the time the Opposition had told us to do that, but we didn't listen. We know what we are doing in economic leadership. The decisions we took were correct, and it is the same with Vision 2050. The Vision plans for a resilient country."

The first part of the interview was carried yesterday