Over 90 years ago, a British governor doubted whether the Maltese people had enough courage to carry out the reforms that had become essential for the island to move ahead after years of abject poverty. Times were really bad for the ordinary people at the time and this, together with the clamour for self-government, had led to the Sette Giugno riots.

What would the same governor, Lord Plumer, say of Malta today had he been around to see all that has taken place since that time? Contrary to one perception that the Maltese were ill-fitted to govern themselves, Malta is not only an independent country today but it is also a member of the European Union. Considering the island's limitations, the advance made since then would have made the Colonial Office stare in wonder at the people's reversal of fortunes and at their capacity to change their country's social and economic landscape beyond recognition.

And, yet, there still remains lingering in our make-up a tendency to stall and stutter whenever difficult reforms need to be carried out, a trait that has recently placed us among the laggards' league of the EU. The trait explains the agony the country has gone through to handle and run the dockyard after its conversion from naval to commercial ship-repair work. A collection of factors, from the politicisation of the workplace to bad management, had led to the 'yard becoming a financial liability and it is only now that the country has been able to privatise what could have been a money spinner had all concerned really sought to put their mind to making a success of the enterprise.

But the yard is not the only example that can be given of the difficulty the country faces when it handles big reforms. The reform of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority and of public transport have given the country serious headaches and, although the ground has now been prepared for the proper functioning of both, it remains to be seen to what extent the reforms will bring about the desired results. For, as was the case with the dockyard, the people had lost count of the number of times they been promised radical improvements, only for the programmes to get stuck in problems over time.

There are as yet a number of other areas that call for improvement, such as, for example, the state energy corporation, Enemalta, where inefficiency has often been given as one of the factors for its mounting costs. New technologies have made some government services very efficient but others are not. It goes without saying that efficiency counts not just in state or parastatal organisations but in private companies too. Some companies that are big by local standards, and which often boast of being leaders in their fields, have, in fact, earned a bad name for inefficiency.

On a national basis, healthcare and social services ought to be pushed to the top of the reform programme. Despite all that is said from time to time about the need to move ahead in these lines, and all the calls made by the European Commission and others, progress appears to have stalled again or, if it has not stalled altogether, is slow. Yet, if the government wants to put its financial house in order, it is essential to move on in its programme to ensure sustainability. Malta needs to push itself out of the laggards' league.