Our challenge is to efficiently, carefully and thoughtfully fit the country into the huge EU construct and doing it in ways that will reward people with the fruits of what 20 years ago was our foresight and what now is reality - EU membership.

Businessmen, politicians and everyone else who has decisions to make acknowledge this to be a difficult time, yet not an unprecedented period of economic transition. This is a time to live up to one more challenge - the challenge of change and growth.

We could well be on the threshold of an economic entrepreneurial boom that will bring in its wake rapid growth for the next decade.

The economy depends on what entrepreneurs make and manage, not what politicians predict or forecast. Attracting business to Malta and generating both value added and employment growth is always a main objective.

The World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey (2003) highlights five main problem areas which include a high degree of bureaucracy, lack of access to finance, inadequate infrastructures, restrictive labour regulations and low-skilled workforces.

Whilst some countries are giving investors the red carpet treatment, here in Malta we often have the wrong attitude towards attracting business. We need to have a holistic economy approach, one that creates the environment to react quickly and effectively to their needs.

Bureaucracy in itself is not wrong - excessive and a negative attitude by bureaucrats is what lets the side down. Laws and regulations are there to serve and to enhance initiative and not to stifle it. Bureaucracy can be turned into inefficiency if we do not have a government-wide attitude which is geared to encourage work, investment and initiative. We need to have the courage to intervene when the system fails to deliver on national priorities.

With regard to infrastructure, people are already asking whether we have done enough to deliver on what we promised. Did the government give us the roads we need in time, with minimal disruption, to specification and within budgets? Do we have proper health services? Is the quality of our water, electricity and communications services high enough? Is our environment up to standard?

We have already done a lot but we still need to deliver more and on all fronts.

The National Action Plan (NAP) for employment was designed to address our needs in the labour market. It aims to increase employment (particularly of women and older workers but not only) and to address the strands that link education with future workforce skills. NAP will try and ensure decent minimum standards in the workplace and the flexibility required to stimulate job creation and flexible working patterns. It will also create new measures for the unemployed or those unable to retain their jobs.

Education will remain one of the most crucial elements to give our country the competitive edge. We need to work on two levels. We need to strengthen our educational system to ensure each student is given a high quality education and, secondly, we need to ensure more students join the higher levels of education and go in for vocational training. We must also focus on those already in the workforce, particularly the low-skilled.

Our lifelong learning strategy is aimed at providing increased training and education programmes in the time one is working.

Education will have failed unless it nurtures research and development programmes in collaboration with industry and this in order to foster innovation and sustain competitiveness.

Investors are constantly observing and checking the country's performance on these issues. If we deliver we stand a better chance of attracting more foreign investment and improve our living standards.

One need not be an econometrician to realise that it will be a keen entrepreneurial spirit that will bring us home safely into port.

I'm confident the Nationalist Party will continue to put together the right set of policies for Malta to overcome the challenges of EU membership and of competing for investment from the rest of the world.

Dr Galea, minister of education, is contesting the post of Nationalist Party leader.