This week government announced it was going to liberalise the so-called hearse market. In other words, the licence to operate a hearse will no longer be in the hands of a few people, who will then either bequeath it to one of their family when the time comes for them to use a hearse or sell it at a premium. It would be possible to sell it at a premium because the number of licences is currently limited and demand exceeds supply. Liberalising the market means that effective and meaningful competition will be introduced, with the effect that prices will go down.

We have already had a very good idea that this liberalisation process was coming when the Minister for Transport, Austin Gatt, was presenting the estimates of the Awtorita' dwar it-Trasport.

His comments seemed to have covered the whole of the inland transport sector and the operators in this sector were unhappy about it to the extent that they discussed whether to go on strike or not.

Government's strategy is fairly clear and has no hidden agenda - one way of making the economy more efficient is through increased competition which is achieved through a process of liberalisation.

In Malta we have grown used to criticising the public sector because in the provision of certain services (such as electricity and water) it enjoys a monopoly. These monopolies bring about inefficiencies and bad service. In effect government does not benefit from a monopoly situation because it ends up being criticised for the mistakes made by the management of these entities. Neither does the consumer benefit because his/her expectations of a good service are all too often not met.

The only persons that seem to benefit from such monopolies are those that manage them and those employees who use every trick in the trade to reduce flexibility, irrespective of the bottom line and what the customer thinks or has to pay for.

However we rarely discuss the private sector monopolies that exist. These monopolies bring about rigidities in the economic system as much as public sector monopolies do and customers end up dissatisfied because the price they would have paid is invariably too high for the service they were given. We can use the example of schoolchildren being dropped off at their school a good thirty minutes before starting time because that is what is convenient to the mini buses.

Thus if we really believe that state controlled monopolies should be made to face some form of competition to make them more efficient and customer friendly, so should private sector monopolies face competition. Limiting the number of operating licences in any sector stifles competition.

The reaction of persons operating in the sector to be liberalised may be understandable when they object, as they always do. On the other hand one cannot agree with it. It is understandable because no one likes losing the position of comfort one is in.

One cannot agree with the reaction because it seems to be based on the premise that competition is fine as long as it is not in my backyard (Nimby). Putting it crudely, we would all like to buy the brand of pasta we like, without being forced to accept a brand that we do not like, but we hate it when it is us that have to face the competition.

We have been through these kind of arguments some twenty years ago when government took the decision to start the process of liberalisation of imports. Those that were producing for the local market under some form of import protection, were against such a process, but when they wore the hat of consumers, they were in favour of liberalisation.

The end result was that the liberalisation process created more jobs, lowered prices and gave customers a better deal. The economy as a whole benefited from this process.

I strongly believe that we need to make a strong statement as a country that there can be no privileged classes that are more equal than others thanks to practices and regulations that belong to times gone by.

The protection of one's job or business should be a result of efficiency, customer friendliness and market relevance.

We need to have an economy that is free and unencumbered from rigidities, because these harm the more productive sectors of the economy. It is only thus that we can truly speak of sustainability in our country.