House approves budget for 2007

The House of Representatives yesterday approved the budget for 2007 through all stages with 32 votes in favour and 25 against.

Concluding the debate, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said he would have liked the debate to bring forward arguments of substance, but it had shown up the opposition's superficial analysis of statistics.

Of course everything was not a bed of roses, but Malta was moving forward, facing challenges with a government policy that gave solutions.

Why did the opposition not have the political maturity to accept what even the EU was recognising: that Malta was on track to adopt the euro?

It seemed that even foreign investment of Lm300 million a year was now not good enough for the opposition.

Dr Gonzi said this budget provided for ongoing investment in education.

The Leader of the Opposition said youth employment was falling, but today Malta's young people were opting to further their studies instead.

The Prime Minister said the government was succeeding in its efforts to curb its spending.

The government's workforce had been reduced while private sector employment grew strongly. Economic growth was expected to be around 2.7 per cent this year.

If the opposition wanted to compare Malta with other countries, it should compare with the whole of the EU, not just with the other new member states which, despite strong economic growth, had 18 per cent unemployment and seven to eight per cent inflation.

Dr Gonzi said the opposition should not discourage the people or continuously spell doom and gloom.

The opposition had not bothered to mention any one of the 109 measures announced in the budget to influence economic and social development.

There were other measures that helped SMEs, such as recognition of the employment of spouses, as well as measures to help part-timers.

The measures addressed four main pillars: economic growth, education, the environment and the social sector.

All these should benefit families, tourism, manufacturing and the industry.

Concluding, Dr Gonzi said the government's aim remained to move to a budget which produced a surplus and to transform Malta into a centre of regional and European excellence in education, financial services, information technology, communications and research and innovation, hopefully with both sides of the House working together.