As with any election, the coming one, due in two weeks' time, is also an opportunity to take stock of the government's performance and compare that with proposals being made in the electoral manifestoes and the performance of the opposition party when it was last in government.
This forthcoming election has an added twist in that a victory for the Nationalist Party would mean we would be joining the European Union on May 1, 2004, while a victory for the Labour Party would mean we would stay out of the EU.
Talk of another referendum after the next elections (probably in about four years' time) is sheer nonsense as all politicians know that if we do not sign the EU treaty on April 16, we would be missing the membership bus forever. It is equally true that we would be missing out on the large number of special arrangements that the government has negotiated with the EU and we would be losing Lm81 million over the coming three years, monies that would have been spent on projects of long-lasting benefit to the Maltese and not on recurrent government expenditure.
Going back to the issue of the government's performance over the past four and a half years, there is no doubt that in the economic sector, the government has a record to be proud of.
These positive results were achieved against a backdrop of an uncertain international situation compounded by an economic slowdown in the world's major economies (which also represent the main markets for our exports, our tourism sector and for foreign direct investment) and an ever more difficult political climate that has led to a number of terrorist acts and finally into a war.
The main economic issue facing the country for the last six years has been the public sector deficit. This stood at 12 per cent of the gross domestic product in 1998; it is now estimated to be at between four to five per cent of the gross domestic product - a very clear signal that it is being brought under control.
One underlying aspect of the public sector deficit is government expenditure. This stood at 48.2 per cent of the gross domestic product in 1996; it rose to 48.9 per cent in 1998 and was down to 47.6 per cent last year.
The level of government expenditure is important because it is useless to think of reducing the tax burden unless government expenditure is reigned in. A tax and spend policy is not a sound economic policy and we should be wary of promises of increasing expenditure here and increasing expenditure there as eventually this would all have to come out of our pockets in terms of taxation.
The fact that government expenditure in relation to the wealth created by the country has gone down (as has happened in the last four years) is a strong indicator that the fiscal sector deficit is being brought down to sustainable levels.
This success has not been achieved at the cost of jobs. The rate of unemployment was 4.5 per cent in 1996, went up to 5.3 per cent in 1998 and went down back to 4.7 per cent last year. The number of persons in full-time employment barely changed between 1996 and 1998, in fact it increased by less than 100. On the other hand, it increased by close to 4,000 since 1998. The number of new jobs created in these four and a half years was 14,000. Whereas the number of males in full-time employment decreased between 1996 and 1998, the number of both males and females in full-time employment increased since 1998.
The increase in employment was underpinned by an increase in net investment in the manufacturing sector. The data published by the Economic Policy Division provides information for a number of years, however, just for the first nine months of each of these years. As such the data is comparable.
This data shows that in the first nine months of 1998, net investment in manufacturing stood at just over Lm17 million. In the first nine months of last year, net investment in manufacturing was over Lm27 million. We have heard for far too long the false statement that we have not been able to attract any new investment in this country; the figures clearly show otherwise.
In terms of monetary growth in the economy, one need only note that total savings (that is demand deposits, savings deposits and time deposits) increased from Lm1,853 million in 1998 to Lm2,577 in 2002. This means that the Maltese have increased their accumulated savings by more than Lm700 million in four years.
The official reserves of the monetary authorities increased from Lm640 million in 1998 to Lm840 million in 2002, an increase of Lm200 million in four years.
This is indeed a record to be proud of, to which we have all contributed. It is a performance that was built on the basis of a clearly defined government vision - membership of the European Union. It would be a pity if we were to throw it all away for something that is indescribable and unrealistic.
I remember the story we had in our Maltese textbook that we used in primary school. It is the story of a dog which had a bone in his mouth and was walking on a bridge.
Looking down, the dog saw its reflection in the water and thought there was another dog with a bone. It wanted to take away the bone from the dog and so jumped in the water. Little did it realise that it was only its own reflection and not only it did not get a second bone but it even lost the one it had.
This is what would happen to us if we decide not to join the EU. We would lose the good that we have managed to create over the years. We have a record to be proud of for what we achieved in the last four years. It is important that we do not lose it.