Politically blurred vision

Pressure is piling up on the Labour leader and his various appointees to come up with what is in store for the Maltese should their party win the election. One would assume that a party that has been considering itself as practically ready to govern will have a clear path and way forward to where it will be steering the country.

(Labour) has so far provided empty rhetoric and buzzwords...- Tonio Fenech

So far, the Labour Party and its leader have avoided saying what their programme is going to be. Rightly so, the economic partners are asking what the vision and the plan of action Labour will embark upon is.

Very little has been said or, rather, implied so far and what is worse is the fact that the little said is rather worrying. The PL, under Joseph Muscat, is no different than the one under his predecessor.

Recent history showed us that when businesses were promised heaven on earth by Labour they ended up stifled with a record list of taxes and bureaucratic burdens, including an impressively complex taxation system to replace VAT and the cash registers saga.

The way Evarist Bartolo pronounced himself about the important education reform, shows that all that matters for the PL is winning the election. This might satisfy the thirst for power of both Labour and its leader at the expense of the well-being of our country, its people and their jobs.

The fact that the Labour leader felt the need to declare that business should feel safe with him is a clear example that the people are wary of the intentions of the party. Most of this suspicion comes from the fact that the PL has so far provided empty rhetoric and buzzwords uttered without any attempt to indicate the action necessary to back them up. As in the case of empty rhetoric, these pledges are forgotten when one is faced by reality. But, again, isn’t this a standard of the new Labour born since Alfred Sant’s ascent to leadership? In its rhetorical spree, the PL attempts to discredit our achievements and those who confirm them.

For reasons known to them, the PL says that when it comes to the deficit we did not reach our targets. So let’s look back at our recent history.

The government has been constantly reducing its deficit. In 2009, we chose to have a bigger deficit than projected in order to support our industries and protect jobs. The following year, we were, together with Estonia, the only country to cut the deficit during the peak of international economic and financial turmoil.

At 3.6 per cent, our deficit was even lower than the projected 3.9 per cent. Last year, our objective was to reduce the deficit further to 2.8 per cent, a target that was achieved.

Although, through the new budgetary procedures in place in Europe the government is in constant contact with the European Commission with regard to its estimates, last January, the Commission took note of the progress registered and confirmed that Malta was within the Stability Pact parameters.

The IMF also commented positively, remarking that Malta carried out one of the major financial correction excercises in the advanced world. This was further confirmed by an extensive review by the Commission of member states’ finances, known as Alert Mechanism, which looked at fiscal sustainability, competitiveness, financial market stability and economic growth.

In its findings, the Commission placed Malta among a restricted number of 11 countries enjoying a clean bill of health and which, therefore, did not require further review.

The PL also tries to portray the €40 million precautionary reduction in our Budget as some form of austerity measure imposed on us by Brussels. One has to live in constant denial not to appreciate the fact that, over the past four months, since we presented the Budget for this year, the world’s and, in particular, the European economy has not suffered further deterioration.

The measures that we took are intended to safeguard the well-being of our economy while sustaining our investment in health, education, social assistance and enterprise.

The end result was further investment and job creation in Malta. Last year, Malta Enterprise approved almost 40 projects that between them carry an investment exceeding €166 million and are expected to generate almost 950 jobs within three years.

These projects, some new, some expansions, comprise a good mix of both local and foreign investment. The mix in itself is significant because it not only shows that investors who are already in Malta are optimistic about the local economy’s performance and are, consequently, expanding their operations but it is also evidence that the country’s economic environment is attractive and foreign investors feel they can set up shop in our country.

Under a Nationalist Administration, we don’t need to stress that we’re safe for business. Businesses and investors confirm that themselves through confidence, investment and job creation.

The author is Minister of Finance, the Economy and Investment.