Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday highlighted criticism against Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi whose government was removing bureaucracy to attract new businesses.
During an interview by Fr Joe Borg, Dr Gonzi was asked to react to concerns outlined by executives in the Ernst & Young attractiveness survey about too much bureaucracy hampering investment to the island.
Dr Gonzi described this concern as “interesting” and then continued to talk about a feature he had followed on the BBC:
“They were criticising an initiative announced only a couple of days ago by Silvio Berlusconi which was intended to incentivise business. (Italy) is doing away with bureaucracy and allowing anyone to open a business and afterwards they will check who is in line.”
“So the BBC was saying: Hang on, what does this mean? Is everyone going to just go on the beach and open a business there, a pizzeria, for example?”
Dr Gonzi said there was a difference between bureaucracy which is there simply to justify the role of civil servants and proper regulation, which is essential to ensure a level playing field.
“It’s a very delicate balance. Let us not simplify because we will be making a very big mistake. If by removing bureaucracy we mean removing the regulatory part it would be a disaster. We will lose our environment and our attractiveness. But our regulation must be fast, transparent and objective.”
Instead, Dr Gonzi felt the important things that should be improved were education, ener-gy and environment.
He said it was imperative to invest in the human resources, which would be needed in the next five to 10 years.
“We’re talking about today’s 10-year-olds. We need to focus on primary and secondary schools and encourage them to look into science, mathematics and other areas that are emerging.”
He stressed that, with regard to energy, the country had to focus not only on reducing costs but on improving supply.
Meanwhile, the overall environment of the country also had to be improved, not only when it came to cleanliness but also infrastructure, waste management and other areas.