Gozo hotels, farmhouses, rentals, restaurants, bars and other related industries such as taxi services have enjoyed good business this summer. The operators all make one statement in common: “Bring over the Maltese as they are the ones that spend and make Gozo tick.”

Foreign residents in Gozo make a good contribution to the local economy. The day tourists do not leave any income (some not even paying the Gozo ferry fare) as these leave Gozo by yacht for Comino/Malta so as to avoid paying the fare.

So yes, this year Gozo had a good summer season and that is definitely a pro.

The cruise liners are a welcome sight but not so financially rewarding as their numbers and staying time are limited from around 10am to noon or a little bit later. Spending is approximately about two per cent of what a normal Maltese spends. But at least the cruise liners do provide a wonderful sight when they berth at Mġarr under the beautiful backdrop that the Lourdes church and Mġarr heights provide.

The only category that didn’t have a good summer were the monti hawkers at It-Tokk as these were told to vacate this square for works which never got off and are still pending. This in itself is a disgrace to the Victoria council. Work began over a year ago but nobody knows when it’s finishing, if ever.

The con sides are several. The Xlendi and Marsalforn bays and seaside promenades have been literally taken over by bar and restaurant tables and chairs, from one end of the promenade to the other, hardly leaving space for people to stroll by. If a family chooses to sit down on one of the public benches, they are looked upon angrily so as to make them move along.

Encroachments, which are supposed to be temporary, have become a permanent fixture all year round and an integral part of a bar or restaurant. Shops situated in side or narrow streets plus embankments have also been taking over, leaving hardly any space for one to walk or pass through.

There is also the fact that many entrepreneurs are employing foreign youngsters or students without a work permit and paying them wages of €3.75 per hour.

There are other thousands of foreign workers who are legally employed and pay their national insurance contribution plus taxes. But there are also several thousands who are exploited by employers and who do not contribute one cent to the nation’s coffers. This should be looked into.

With an excellent income in Gozo during this summer, I would have thought that the Gozo GDP would have gone up and narrowed the gap that exists between Gozo and Malta. To my surprise when leafing through statistics, I noticed that the GDP of Gozo had declined from approximately 75-6 per cent of the Malta GDP to 71 per cent.

Bring over the Maltese as they are the ones that spend and make Gozo tick

Instead of showing progress, the Gozo GDP regressed. For me this only means that there was much more income coming in on mainland Malta than in Gozo. Government must look into this and move fast so as to improve the situation in Gozo much more than it has up to now.

• Another con concerns the notarial archive documents. About 15 years ago, the government transferred these documents to Malta and gave them to a private legal company to administer.

Anyone who wanted information or a copy of any document had to write to this company to receive the information required. This was of course against a hefty sum of money. If a mistake was made, as some names are the same, this mistake was an added cost to the client. This company made millions out of this scheme originated by the previous administration.

Recently, the new administration took over this role once again, and rightly so. The problem though was that these documents continued being kept in Malta. A Gozitan still has to ask for any of these documents from Malta.

I brought this up with the ministry whose department accepted and agreed to return these documents to the Gozo Archives, thus permitting any Gozitan to do his/her own research.

But it appeared that the final say lay with another ministry and its department. The department said that Gozitans can ask for the documents and these would be sent to the individual. Now I ask, why should Gozitans ask for the documents when they themselves could verify them at their leisure in Gozo itself? Why do Gozitans have to submit their request to an office in Malta?

After all, both the previous and present administrations are shifting their back office work to Gozo, enabling the transfer of Gozitan workers in Malta to Gozo. So why this delay from certain officials?

Permit me to quote what I wrote to the officials: “Give Caesar what is Caesar’s” and “the Gozitans what is Gozitan”.

• The Citadel in Victoria is unfolding new and marvellous historical relics with every dig that is being made. As Gozo enjoys only limited national historical treasures, I would suggest to this administration to issue a tender for modern scan equipment to measure each part of the Citadel.

When about five years old, I remember playing with other boys in this place when some of us ventured into a tunnel and discovered Turkish swords and daggers. A policeman came to our house about noon and asked if I had any of them. I answered that I had none but others did.

Recently when the cathedral clergy were installing a lift, marble columns were unearthed. These are still in the Cathedral church. It is said that the cathedral was built on the remains of the temple of the goddess Juno.

So when our country is receiving financial assistance from the EU, what is keeping the administration from excavating and searching for these lost, past, historical monuments?

There used to be over 2,600 people living in the Citadel, which also had a Jewish sector. So what about excavating the old buildings?

These discoveries would help enrich the historical aspects of Gozo and make the island more attractive to locals and visitors.