As a Gozitan, I must say that the 2012 Budget has been quite disappointing for me. It essentially lacked proper direction, especially when it comes to the generation of new working opportunities. Even more worrying, it offered no hope for the future.
...Eco-Gozo has become an utter joke- Franco Mercieca
A very important step in reaching a solution is to accept that one indeed has a problem. However, even though the government now seems to have accepted the fact that there is a serious lack of jobs, very little has been proposed to stimulate the employment market in Gozo.
No incentive has been proposed to attract knowledge-based firms or other high value added jobs. The 60 per cent tax credit for Gozitan SMEs and the 50 per cent wage funding for the first year under the employment aid scheme, compared to 40 per cent and 25 per cent respectively in Malta, have helped but definitely not been enough to stop the continuous haemorrhage of our younger generations to seek employment in Malta or overseas.
Officially, over 1,000 Gozitans had to emigrate over the last three years. This fact has saved the blushes for this Administration and hid the employment reality or lack of it.
What hurts me most as a Gozitan is the lethargy this Administration has shown in pushing the case for Gozo to have a special regional status recognition.
The EU pre-accession false promise combined with the infamous declaration 36 meant that the Commission never got the mandate from the government to issue a report on the Gozitan economic and social situation prior to the negotiations on the EU budget for 2007-2013. We now seem to be experiencing a déjà vu as the plans for the EU Budget 2014-2020 are looming and no such reports are in the pipeline either.
It is no secret that if the gross domestic product for Malta in 2010 was at 83 per cent of the EU average, that of Gozo is hovering at about 57 per cent and, therefore, stresses the need for Gozo to be given special attention.
With Malta losing the objective one status and being placed in transition, this would have serious implications on the EU funds available for Gozo.
Given the serious lack of commitment towards Gozo over the last decade and unheeded frequent calls to set up a statistics office in Gozo, time may be running out to issue an official professional report on the state of affairs of our little island and present a strong case to the European Commission in order to consider our regional status in the next budgetary framework. Honestly, I expected at least a mention on this issue in the Budget speech.
However, a mention we did get on the issue of a permanent link between Malta and Gozo. But only that. This was received with acclamation by the Gozo Business Chamber, the rationale of which escapes me.
As a keen promoter of the permanent link, which, in my opinion, would be a long-term measure to rehabilitate Gozo, I was perplexed by the apparent lack of budgeting for the feasibility studies.
Have the finalised pre-feasibility studies been conveniently shelved till after the Budget to avoid any talk on the next step? Are the sour experiences of big projects like SmartCity or White Rocks denting the forward gear of this Administration?
This lack of inertia when it comes to Gozo affairs is striking. The Nationalist Party’s colonial approach vis-a-vis Gozo is worrying.
But it seems that we still have Eco-Gozo to rejoice about. With several millions of euros from previous budgets still not used, it was obvious that fewer euros will be budgeted for this year, specifically on Eco-Gozo.
As a Gozitan fully conversant with the highly commendable aim of reducing the water and carbon footprint, I was very disappointed to notice that year after year we do not get any clear picture of specific projects compatible with the Eco-Gozo concept or with sustainable growth in Gozo.
We all get the impression that the idea of Eco-Gozo is the embellishment of roundabouts and main roads, the cleaning of valleys and the planting of more trees. Then, occasionally, we hear through the grapevine of other small projects such as the one of the occupational therapy department at the Gozo General Hospital or repairing the ceiling at the sports complex being sponsored by the Eco-Gozo fund.
Such initiatives are obviously commendable but carry no sense to be part of Eco-Gozo. At this rate, the Eco-Gozo concept, which was a vote catcher before the 2008 election as vision 2015 and soon after altered to vision 2020, would be better marketed as 2050 vision if we are lucky! The term Eco-Gozo has become an utter joke.
This nonchalance by the central government is having a high cost on the economy and on the social fabric of our gem of an island. A status quo for Gozo spells bad news. We definitely deserve better.