25,000 new jobs in five years 'a reachable target', minister says

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech has said that even if present-day realities were not conducive, he was confident that the target of creating 25,000 jobs in the next five years was a reachable target.

Speaking in Parliament on the motion in reply to the President's address, Mr Fenech described the government's programme as its vision of sustainable development to ensure financial, social and environmental success.

Although Malta was giving more importance to the services industry, investment in the infrastructure, through both public and private funds, must continue. Economic stability was imperative for Malta to continue to attract international investment. Above all, investors must have peace of mind at all times.

Malta would continue to build on its monetary and fiscal policies to reach its target to turn the deficit into a surplus by 2010, providing more public resources to reinvest in the infrastructure.

Mr Fenech said that new factories, schools and port development were needed to attract investment by the local and foreign private sector which was the motor behind the economy. Last year, people in employment increased by two per cent while the number of government employees went down by 800. Malta had a record level of low unemployment and a record level of employment.

Malta must continue to compete with its European counterparts for investment and must incentivise research and development in all sectors, not least in IT. Competition would lead to efficiency and this would benefit one and all, whether the operator or the consumer.

Towards this end, the government was strengthening the Office of Fair Trading so that it would have the necessary tools to see that where a monopoly existed, prices were not abusive.

The government would also continue to strengthen entrepreneurship.

More and more people must come up with ideas and put them to work for themselves and for the economy.

Ninety-five per cent of Maltese industry was made up of micro-enterprises, each of which did not employ more than 10 people on average. This sector did not want to be hampered by bureaucracy, and the government was streamlining the public service towards this end.

Turning to initiatives that would incentivise the economy, Mr Fenech said that these included six sectors - financial, value-added manufacturing, tourism, ICT, education and health.

More women and elderly people must be enticed to join or rejoin the workforce.

The revision of the taxation system would continue to be an incentive to those who really wanted to work. The country must do away with subsidies and introduce lower taxes.

Concluding, Mr Fenech said the industry would be strengthened, more business Incubation Centres sought and the film industry would be encouraged to expand.