The geographical distance between Malta and continental Europe creates conditions of exclusion, isolation and dependence in various aspects of modern living, including transport, communications, energy supply, medical care, education and even culture.
In Gozo’s case, such challenges are more daunting because Gozitans have to deal with issues of double insularity.
The political debate on how to tackle the challenges of Gozo’s double insularity occasionally takes centre stage and invariably arouses passionate discussion. During the European Parliament elections campaign, the challenges of Gozo’s insularity were again on the agenda of the main political parties.
The Prime Minister maintained that “the previous government failed to persuade the EU to consider Gozo as a region”. The leader of the Opposition reacted by saying that “we secured the best Gozo deal”. Former Labour MP Lino Debono, writing in Times of Malta, maintained that “Gozo is definitely worse off now than it was 10 years ago”.
Many rightly consider these arguments as sterile because they propose nothing new in how Gozo’s economy can overcome the intrinsic disadvantages of a small island. Finding a solution that will enable Gozo to cope with higher operating costs and achieving equal opportunities for economic growth and social convergence with Malta, and even more with continental Europe, is not easy.
In the last two decades, progress was achieved in making ferry connections between Malta and Gozo easier and more reliable. But the problem of interconnection remains a real one because anyone trying to travel from Gozo to anywhere else in the world has to rely on a slow transit to Malta’s international airport.
More needs to be done to improve the basic transport infrastructure between Malta and Gozo to speed up access to other countries. However, such improvement does not just depend on the economic viability of the different options but also on whether they risk doing more harm than good to the sister island.
Progress has also been made in the diversification of the Gozo touristic product in alternative forms of tourism that do not depend solely on the summer season as, for example, local tourism, diving tourism and the development and marketing of agricultural products for tourists.
While further investment in the economic and physical infrastructure of Gozo will continue to be necessary, the government needs to look beyond the traditional infrastructure and focus on new strategies that are based on the thematic concentration of actions that qualify for EU regional support.
Such desirable action includes investment in innovation, information and communications technology, SMEs, and low-carbon economy. But even here one needs to be realistic and ask whether Gozo is prepared to follow these thematic targets because there are still pending more basic needs.
Some economists make the argument that, in Gozo’s case, there are some low-lying fruits that can be more easily picked and that will bring about more immediate economic benefits.
The EU is steadily promoting a Blue Growth strategy “to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a whole”, strategies that would be ideal for small islands like Gozo. Sectors that are included in this Blue Growth strategy include aquaculture, coastal tourism, marine biotechnology, ocean energy and seabed mining.
With Malta’s long experience in tourism, strengthening the Gozo product should be a priority investment target. Creative thinking rather than excessive reliance on EU handouts can help Gozo overcome its insularity challenges.