It needs more than one hero to slay ‘dragons’ holding back the economy from making even greater progress than that being registered today. With greater economic growth, the gap in thepeople’s living standard with that in the more affluent European countries will be narrowed a bit more.

Ahead of the presentation of the Budget, the government is coming under heavy pressure from business organisations to bring down the energy tariffs even further in the light of the sharp drop in the price of crude oil.

Even though the government has a strong argument in support of its stand to hold back from reducing further the energy cost – that of the need to pay back past loans for the building of the old power station – the organisations feel an additional cut is well justified.

But apart from making a well-reasoned case for a drop in energy tariffs, the organisations, as represented in the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development, want the administration to slay other ‘dragons’ that are causing difficulties in the economy.

Top in their list are bureaucracy in the civil service and road congestion. They also stress the need to continue to improve added value in manufacturing and, also, the urgent need to have a better-trained workforce.

However, there are others ‘dragons’, such as the need by the government to avoid wasteful controversies over new government projects or initiatives. It can do this by becoming more transparent, and accountable. Much energy is wasted in recrimination over matters that, to use the Prime Minister’s own words, could have been tackled differently.

A classical case in point is its first plan to allow the building of a university on land outside development zone. It took the largest environmental protest held to date to make the government change its mind and allow only part of the university to be built at Żonqor Point. Or was all this a mise en scène? Far too many things could have been done differently.

But to go back to the ‘dragons’ mentioned at the MCESD meeting, it is disconcerting that the island is finding it so difficult to come to grips with tackling the problem of bureaucracy in the civil service. Bloating the public service with a lot more workers than it requires will only make it worse, more so when many of these are needed in the private sector.

But the government appears more intent on getting the votes first than in tackling problems from the root. With all the efforts it boasts about in the work it is doing to tackle excessive bureaucracy, the business organisations are still complaining that it is one of the ‘dragons’ keeping back progress.

The traffic problem is getting worse by the day and there appears to be no plan as yet to solve bottlenecks urgently. Indeed, the government seems unperturbed at the rising costof the man-hours lost as result ofthe huge traffic congestions buildingup in so many key traffic arteries all over the island.

According to the employers’ organisation, “there are indications that the economy is heading towards a boom period, which is positive in some respects but also presents challenges”. However, it warns that as the economy heats up, prices may tend to rise ahead of productivity gains and this may affect competitiveness.

No fewer than 437 proposals and recommendations have been made to the government for consideration before the presentation of the Budget.

Slaying the ‘dragons’ shackling further development ought to begiven top consideration in the government’s programme.

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