During the PN’s last legislature the undeniable fierce battle cry was job creation. Going against the grain on many aspects, Lawrence Gonzi’s government strived tirelessly to attract investment that would guarantee jobs for our workforce and the hundreds of newly qualified graduates coming on stream annually.
With hindsight, this intense focus on job creation led the party in government to renege on other sensitive issues with the attendant electoral consequences. On balance this strategy may have failed the Nationalist Party miserably at the hustings but ensured that unlike many countries around us we did not end up victims of a vicious and painful backlash, fruits of a recession that has undermined much larger neighbouring economies.
Luring intelligent investment and empowering wealth creation through employment remain the founding pillars that sustain a successful economy, an economy that can not only withstand shocks but also pay the bills. The effects of a vibrant economy guarantee revenue that sustains our health, education and social obligations to our society at large. Any contraction or reversal in these fortunes will translate into effective cutbacks on the many privileges past governments have provided and that we all take for granted today.
A latest slew of statistics from NSO indicate that our buzzing economy is in some way slowing down. Data regarding new jobs, unemployment statistics, retail sales and consumption signal that our economy is possibly entering a rough patch. Only a couple of weeks ago data revealed also a contraction in imports and consequently also exports. Simply on the jobs front, a year-on-year statistic revealed that there is an increase of 600 jobless so far.
During this same period consumption relating to food and also significantly long term purchases like domestic appliances declined by 20 per cent. Local production has also contracted by the tune of nine per cent while even more ominously food prices have risen by more than seven per cent. To boot, Maltese travelling abroad also declined by no less than 37 per cent between the months of April and June.
These figures make for grim reading and do not augur well for a new administration that has now been at the helm for half a year. Hopefully this Labour government will not unwind all the positive results that previous administrations have worked so hard to achieve for our country. It is in nobody’s interest that our economy stutters. Economic stability and growth are at this point imperative as the Eurozone continues to struggle with economic woes of historical proportions.
The latest comments by the various leading constituted bodies to the recently published pre-Budget document suggest that they were not overly excited at the prospects for the next fiscal year. The general message is that in a sense this country continues to move forward on the remaining momentum created by the previous administration’s efforts. There are few, if any, new initiatives barring those projected in the 2012 budget.
There is also very little meat on the bone regarding new inward investment and an increasing realisation that this government intends to focus on construction as its economic saviour. Even the GWU expressed its reservations regarding the latter’s sustainability and pressed for more efforts in the manufacturing sector. The Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association was equally unimpressed as it contends with the fact that the cruise liner business has contracted by no less than 40 per cent this year.
Ironically this situation is a complete opposite to what was promised by Labour before the election. So much for road maps! Up till March these gentlemen had promised us a tight and focused roadmap for this country. The PL electoral campaign promised a dynamic government that would hit the ground running. These latest statistics seem to suggest otherwise and more. There has been much pontificating about mythical radars and impetuous talk of economic growth but very little in the way on tangible projects have materialised. In six months I have yet to see one concrete large undertaking involving the government that guarantees new jobs. Hopefully these will be revealed sooner rather than later!
This country continues to move forward on the remaining momentum created by the previous administration’s efforts
In the meantime a brief look at some headline numbers for the previous PN administration’s work would be in order.
Between 2008 and 2011, 20,000 new jobs were created and this with a backdrop of economic woes all around us.
A total of 43,000 requests for workers were made by employers during the five-year term.
Thanks to a number of schemes and re-training opportunities along with financial and fiscal incentives, 5,000 individuals were able to find new jobs. Many of these were women and first time job seekers.
The Micro Credit Scheme improved the lot of no less than 1,000 small and medium businesses that in turn hired more workers.
Between 2008 and 2011 there were 130 applications for factory extensions that would eventually translate into €320 million in actual investment. This also translated in 3,400 new jobs.
The PN administration invested €17 million in a new aviation park that provided highly paid jobs for over 1,000 individuals. This with an injection of €120 million in educational initiatives such as the extension of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology and the Bio-Park.
Mr Government, this is the kind of beef that sustains the real economy...any other pie in the sky will prove superfluous!
info@carolinegalea.com
The author is a member of the PN Executive Committee.