Last week I wrote about the point that an economy needs peace for it to grow. Peace guarantees stability, but above all secures our future, which even in the best of circumstances always remains elusive.

The Pre-Budget Document published last Saturday by the government has, in effect, as its title Securing Our Future. It seeks to transform into a concrete programme of action the vision and strategy that was set out this time last year. That strategy was based on improved competences and capacities, higher productivity and a diffused culture of excellence all round.

One may feel that it is easy to set out a vision, strategy and a programme of initiatives. After all, we are getting used to stated visions that say little more than a plagiarism of current ideas or, worse still, ideas of a decade ago, with little or no relevance to tomorrow's realities.

However, this year's Pre-Budget Document is nothing of the sort. It is an indication of a Prime Minister and a government that, love them or hate them, still have beer in the belly, are still eager to stimulate the creation of wealth, are still seeking to guarantee social cohesion, are still not tired of governing, still have lots to offer to the country. This reminds me of a statement once made by Giulio Andreotti, the renowned Italian politician, who claimed, "Il potere logora...chi non c'è l'ha!".

One may disagree with one or two individual policies but, overall, one gets the confidence that we have a government that wants to look ahead and make things happen, so that the future would not be as elusive as it may seem today. What has struck me most in the introduction to the Pre-Budget Document is the statement that the government is working to ensure that Malta still has a continued presence in the international marketplace, thereby creating more wealth and improving the standard of a living in a cohesive way.

It is evident that one is not shying away from the challenges offered by an increasingly open and globalised economy; nor is one acting scared and seeking to create a siege mentality to "keep the foreigner away". It is evident that the government is fully aware of the problems posed by our small size and the significant extent of the openness of our economy, but at the same time also aware of the opportunities that the free exchange of goods and services and the relatively free movement of capital is bringing about. There is a sense of realism pervading in the Pre-Budget Document that our economy can continue to thrive because of the resourcefulness of our human resources.

The document itself is quite wide-ranging as

¤ It analyses the performance of the Maltese economy;

¤ It talks of the options that exist for taxation reform; it proposes a socio-economic strategy for Gozo;

¤ It describes possible measures for a more inclusive and participatory society;

¤ It addresses the two main pillars of our economy namely industry and tourism;

¤ It sets clear objectives for a research and innovation strategy;

¤ It focuses on the environment and

¤ It puts the 2007 Budget into a European perspective as we move towards the adoption of the Euro as our national currency.

Each of these items requires a separate discussion and assessment if one wishes to do full justice to the document and, as such, shall be covered in future contributions. However, one cannot but note that this document makes it very evident that the Maltese economy is continuing with its transformation.

One may claim that we cannot continue to be an economy with a placard "work in progress". However, it is so and we need to be so, and not because of the continued road works or construction work wherever one looks (although at times there is so much of it that it is verging on the absurd).

The move towards higher value activities, guaranteed through a more knowledgeable workforce and through a culture of excellence, is a process that requires time - lots of time - and cannot be finished within a few years. Moreover, the increased competition in all spheres means that we will never actually get there, as the need to adapt to new circumstances in the international environment becomes a constant issue.

As most football teams know all too well, it is easier to get promoted to the Premier League than to stay there. Likewise, we need to work harder to sustain our economic achievements than we have had to do in the past.

Hence, the need to remind ourselves that the future will remain elusive if we go chasing fairies as opposed to selecting concrete measures that seek to achieve concrete results. The Pre-Budget Document, without much fanfare, does have a concrete vision, that leads to a concrete strategy, outlining a number of concrete proposals, that will give us concrete results and will therefore make the future real. They are a sign of a competent, even if admittedly unpopular, government.