Last week's contribution focused on the need to achieve a social pact between the government, trade unions, organisations representing the business sector and employers, civil society (that is non-governmental organisations representing specific interest groups on a national level) and ideally even all the political parties.

In effect, I was doing nothing more than echo (admittedly with my own interpretation) an appeal made recently by the Secretary General of the UHM, Gejtu Vella, and not so recently by other important personalities in this country. Such a pact would be good for the economy as well as the country as a whole.

I would like to go further by citing the example of Ireland. On joining the European Economic Community (or as called at the time the Common Market) in the early 1970s together with Great Britain and Denmark, Ireland experienced severe difficulties in trying to adjust to the new scenario. It sorted out its problems once the government of that country reached agreement with the opposition parties, the trade unions and the organisations representing employers on the broad strategy that the country should follow to maximise the benefits that EU membership could bring.

All too often we cite Ireland as an example to follow, especially in the way it has achieved the highest economic growth rate in the European Union in the last 15 years and in the way it has managed to attract foreign investment from elsewhere in Europe and particularly from the United States. However, this success story is built on a social pact and this fact should not be taken lightly. Irish politicians, business people and trade unionists all recognise that this success would not have been possible without such a social pact.

We are in the enviable position of achieving such a social pact not after suffering the negative impact of EU membership but before the effective date of membership. It is a window of opportunity that we cannot afford to throw away.

Maybe it is time for the UHM to explain clearly what it means by its proposal because it is built on one basic assumption - an unwillingness to allocate blame for whatever it is that has gone wrong in our economy. And I believe that not much has gone wrong with our economy even if we are now at a crossroads on certain issues and difficult decisions await us. This is in stark contrast with the attitude that has been displayed by some, who are only too willing to wash their hands off problems on the premise that they did not cause them.

I believe that we have all gained a great deal from the economic policies followed by this government. The economic data proves it. High sustainable growth rates, an increase in both consumption and saving, foreign direct investment, the development of new economic activities particularly in the services sector, the expansion in operations of firms operating in Malta, moving from the fourth division to the premier division in terms of availability of information technology are all examples of how these economic policies have been successful.

We are now at the stage where, because of the process of globalisation of the world economy, mainly in the form of increased competition in our export markets, our tourism markets and in the investment markets, we require not so much any drastic changes of policies, but a different approach. And the social pact would represent such a different approach.