September marks the anniversary of Independence. Our nation celebrates 45 years as a sovereign state; 45 years of challenges that culminated in EU membership in 2004. Years during which we have learned from our mistakes; years that, notwithstanding the dark times of the 1970s and early 1980s, have resulted in a success story for our country.

Even though so many years have passed since 1964, the priorities of the Nationalist government have not changed much. George Borg Olivier's vision was to bring our country at par with the other European nations and I must say that we have succeeded in this goal. His vision was to attract foreign investment, to generate more jobs for our workforce and to ensure that nobody is left behind. The priorities of this Administration run on pretty much the same lines. The emphasis though is not on just creating jobs but ensuring that our families enjoy the same standard of living as those in other countries within the EU.

These last few months have been ones of turmoil on the international scene and it was only the long-term measures taken by the Nationalist government, including the introduction of the euro last year, that ensured we could emerge from this crisis somewhat unscathed. However, one must not forget that our economy depends on the economies of other countries and the problems they faced did leave a mark on our industries, most notably the tourism industry and in the export sector.

We must learn how to embrace change, like our predecessors did in 1964 when there was an overhaul in the country's economy. We must now continue to be innovative in order to attract niche industries. We must be sensitive to the demands of the world's economy and be proactive so as to attract prospective investors. We have said many times that our workforce is one of the main assets of our country and we must use this to our best advantage. We all know that Europe faces fierce competition from the emerging markets of the Asian continent, especially the Indian and the Chinese markets, but we must not rule out the other newly-developing markets of Latin America. We must portray an image that inspires confidence and efficiency.

And this concept must also be applied to our tourism sector. It is high time we started marketing our country as a destination of excellence, one of special and particular interest, also known as niche market tourism. With the recession that has now seeped well into every economy in every country, the going got tougher. Numbers have been declining worldwide, with our country being no exception. However, compared to our European counterparts we are faring well, mainly due to the sterling work carried out by Mario de Marco and his team.

The last couple of years have seen the central government and the Malta Tourism Authority, together with other stakeholders, working hand in hand to improve the product: our culture, our heritage, our environment. We can still do more to offer a better product, although we have succeeded in gaining a lot of ground on this issue.

The emerging markets aforementioned, like India and Latin America, are taking this sector by storm. A good example of this is eco tourism. There has been another important shift in culture: the recognition of global warming. The mounting unease over global warming and climate change, combined with rising oil prices, the energy crisis and the economic slowdown, have led to remarkable changes in tourist attitudes, travel seasonality and other travel trends. It is even influencing individual choices regarding travel destinations, the length of trips and other factors such as the availability of environmentally-friendly modes of transport and environmentally-responsible service providers.

This new brand of travellers is also progressively looking for quality products and experiences that offer value for money. In particular, they search for environmentally-friendly travel and tourism-related products and services as well as those that enable them to take part in local community activities. And this is where we can combine the niche tourism to our cultural activities like village feasts and so on.

While stressing the importance of tourism, we must keep employment as the highest point on the agenda - as the Nationalist Party has done years after year, since its inception. However, crafting a good tourism product will bring over more tourists, and this will consequently generate more and better jobs. With this sector we can hit two birds with one stone; we just need to craft more inventive products, believe in them and sell them.

Mr Casa is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.

david.casa@europarl.europa.eu, www.davidcasa.eu