Minister Dalli calls for control on consumption

Social Policy Minister John Dalli has appealed to the Maltese to curb consumption in the face of the global economic meltdown, forget about subsidies and spend only what they can afford.

Speaking in Parliament during the second reading of the Malta Freeports (Amendment) Bill, Mr Dalli said the Maltese must get used to moving with the times, even where prices were concerned. It was important to follow the supply-and-demand mechanism.

One must keep in mind how raw materials had acquired a greater value through just such a mechanism, with prices rocketing astronomically. Few people had noticed what was happening in many economies, notably that of India, those in Asia and those in South America, until such time as it was realised that they were consuming many of the world's resources. The prices of oil, iron, aluminium and other commodities were now going down because of forecast slowdowns.

Mr Dalli said Malta could not continue with the old system of subsidies. This led to the idea of consuming at whatever the price. People were spending more than they could afford while the community was paying dearly. One should pay according to consumption and one must be careful how and how much one consumed.

The price mechanism was important for the whole Maltese community. Consumption must be compared with market prices. How could anyone think that Malta could continue to consume the same amount of oil and pay five times what it paid three years ago? One must control consumption.

Earlier, Minister Dalli said the Malta Freeport should be a reference point of courage to the people. It was a success story and should be a focal point of how to instil confidence to solve the problems facing the country.

The vision of the Freeport in 1987, when the PN took office, was totally different from that of today. While in the 1980s the Freeport was but a small industry serving Malta's needs, it had evolved as a major player in maritime activities in the Mediterranean.

Nationalist governments had a different vision of the Freeport, that of creating wealth, providing employment but more importantly linking Malta with as many countries as possible. Today Malta was linked to some 70 other ports. The Freeport had provided Malta with the operative aspect and not just economic wealth.

Mr Dalli emphasised that the Maltese should not think small, even if they lived in a small country. They should not cocoon themselves because they were capable of competing with bigger nations and could compete on the highest level.

The Malta Freeport had faced fierce competition from other "giants". The Freeport at Gioia Tauro had started developing at the same time as that of Malta. It had surplus capacity problems and had started slashing prices. If the government of the day were weaker, the competition would have made it stop all development. With courage and good management, serious difficulties had been overcome.

Big investments had to be made to sustain development. The government had faced problems to finance such development and this had led to the successful privatisation of the organisation. This had resulted in better efficiency and, in turn, further investments continued to be made.

Mr Dalli said the government's widest visions had been surpassed. Today, the Freeport had an annual turnover of three million containers. Only 50,000 of these covered Malta's total imports and exports, and this proved that the Maltese should not shy away from challenges.

He said that the country a strong financial supervisory structure which shielded Malta from the problems that the world was facing.

Interjecting, Labour MP Evarist Bartolo asked whether Maltese banks and institutions were in fact protected from the crisis, knowing that Europe had now also been shaken by the crisis.

Mr Dalli said that, although finance was not within his portfolio, he could safely say that internal studies continued to show that there did not seem to be big problems that impinged on the health of the financial institutions. This went not only for the Central Bank and the local banks but also for other financial institutions in which the Maltese were investing.