Pre-budget blues

The government has just issued two very important documents, which are witness to both democracy and transparency at its best: The pre-budget document and the White Paper on the Freedom of Information Act. This is a sign of serious government and governance. The pre-budget document has a specific vision for Malta's development over the next eight years in the areas of ICT, financial services, tourism and industry.

"Malta has earned the description of ICT Centre of Excellence in its region and has transformed its wide-eyed ambition into an experience all acknowledge as positive and desirable for our economy," the document states. "It has been classified as the 24th most technologically ready country in the world." That is no mean feat!

It goes on: "We have declared that the Financial Services Industry is strategic to Malta and that we will support its long-term sustainable growth. We have succeeded in placing this industry on a sound footing and recognise the number of advantages we possess that are yielding tangible results in the form of high value-added 'export' services and employment."

Further: "Our vision for Malta's tourism is based on the principle of sustainability. Sustainable development is a challenge in itself, particularly for our country, in view of the many demands on a limited land area. But we believe that through proper planning and the right decisions - which may not always be popular with the industry and/or with the public - we can move towards and achieve sustainable development in tourism. The principles of sustainable tourism include economic prosperity, social equity and environmental and cultural protection."

And, finally: "In the course of last year, Government published an Industrial Strategy for Malta that established the country's vision, strategic focus and the actions that need to be taken in order to ensure that Maltese enterprise and industry overcomes the challenges of globalisation and, generally, thrives. The strategy identifies a range of key challenges facing local industry."

These are clear and bold statements regarding the four areas where our government believes Malta's future lies. As many of us have already written and commented, the pre-budget document outlines a series of measures which will lead to a better standard and quality of life for our families. It is a result of other measures taken over the last years to strengthen our economy and the country's finances. This has now been done and we can reap the benefits.

Specific sectors targeted for expansion are education, health care, back-office processing outsourcing, financial management, professional consultancy, creative services, maritime, aviation, bio-technology, bio-information and pharmaceuticals, ICT and hi-tech manufacturing. Many of these sectors, as is to be expected, fall under the wings of the hard-working, innovative and no-nonsense Minister Austin Gatt. As such, they must surely move forward and be successful.

It is an undisputed fact that documents such as the pre-budget one is a creation of the Nationalist government, outlining what traditionally was a closely kept secret until the very last minute before the famous Budget speech was delivered in Parliament by the Minister of Finance. Until some 20 years ago our budgets rotated around the price of a tin of tuna (which Prime Minister Dom Mintoff was so pleased to quote). Today we talk of serious and concrete plans and solid and sustainable projects for the future. Of course, we still have the regular increases in the price of cigarettes and the other normal, mundane budget measures. But it is much more than that. Following the introduction of a Whistleblower's Act, a very important piece of legislation for any democratic country and one which will continue to strengthen our government's arm in the face of the cases of corruption which it is ably tackling, we now have a White Paper on a Freedom of Information Act. This was a missing link in our democratic credentials. For the ordinary citizen to have free and full access to public documents (except those which are necessarily secret because of security considerations) is a sine qua non for the transparency which has become such a common buzz word bandied about by political parties. The eventual introduction of this Act is yet another feather in the Nationalist government's hat.

The White Paper states: "The draft Act would establish the principle that government information is subject to disclosure unless there is a valid reason, justifiable in terms of specific criteria established by law, to withhold it. The draft Act also provides for an independent mechanism capable of enforcing the law and offering citizens an avenue of appeal against unjustified decisions to withhold information". The fact that feedback was requested and received from journalistic fora and incorporated in the White Paper is commendable. I augur that public feedback will now also be received and heeded.

A final point. There has been talk in the press about the right or otherwise of lawyer MPs to exercise their profession in defending, among others, public officials accused of corruption (particularly bribery). It has been said that such MPs should not patronise such persons. This is sheer nonsense. First of all, an MP has a right to exercise his profession in a free manner. Should a medical doctor not treat a patient who is suffering from a drug overdose, for example?! Secondly, every person accused of breaching our criminal laws is breaching a law enacted by MPs. Does this mean that lawyers should not be MPs or vice versa? Have we forgotten the law put in place by the Socialist government banning MPs from appearing in particular cases? I believe that law was declared unconstitutional. Are we going back in time? Any serious professional can clearly distinguish between his professional practice and his role as an MP. I back Bocca fully on this one!