The coming year was a tough one which should also be filled with opportunities, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this morning.
Closing his party’s general council which saw the party electing its first woman president – Paula Mifsud Bonnici, Dr Gonzi said that the country should be ready to grab the opportunities coming its way as soon as they appeared.
The council, which started on Friday, today opened with the reading of a speech prepared by party councillor Pawlu Aquilina, whose died yesterday.
Dr Gonzi, as well as other speakers, started his address with a tribute to Mr Aquilina, thanked Victor Scerri, the party’s former president, and welcomed Dr Mifsud Bonnici.
He said that all social partners in Malta had accepted the fact that there was a world recession which was also affecting Malta and it would be irresponsible to hide challenges and present an unreal picture of what was happening.
Since Malta became an EU member, jobs in the private sector had increased from 90,500 to 103,700, those in the public sector dropped from 46,700 to 40,900 and the number of women in employment rose from 40,400 to 46,200.
Investment was coming to Malta and would continue to come but government had to keep taking decisions for the country to remain the best in the niches that made it special.
Malta, he said, should not be afraid of reforms for it was only because the country had been reformed that it was in its current position.
Reforms in the pipeline included that which would transform the transport sector, the reform in the use of energy, that of Mepa and one which would see farmers benefitting from increases in fruit and vegetables.
Earlier, Dr Gonzi agreed with one of today's speakers who said that the recession had come about because of a recession in values.
Dr Gonzi referred to the European Court of Human Rights judgement thast called for the removal of the crucifix from Italian classrooms and said that for Europe and Malta the crucifix was a symbol of unity and not of division.
This, he said, was an opportunity to stand up and be counted, defending the freedom of believers and their right to have symbols they believed in.