As the economy keeps going at breakneck speed, there would seem to be no deep reflection, much less well thought-out plans, to ensure sustainability and action to cope with the impact development is having on the lives of the population as the workforce keeps growing to feed expansion.

Even though little tangible progress has been made in the drive to develop new economic niches, the rapid expansion of the existing sectors is creating a set of key challenges that would need to be met if the country is to keep a steady growth rhythm without having to go through bouts of unnecessary obstacles.

A problem area is the additional number of workers the country needs to cope with the growth in development, something that needs to be tackled with a sense of urgency. This has prompted the Malta Employers’ Association to call for a demographic study to determine what changes in its population Malta could handle within a short span of time.

It argues that, despite the rise in the activity rate and in female participation, domestic labour supply has failed to keep up with the sudden rise in demand due to the number of productive hours demanded and, partially, to skill mismatches. Because of this, Malta has seen an upsurge in the number of foreign workers, with the figure rising up to a staggering 37,000, or 18 per cent of the workforce, this year.

If, as it is being forecast, the country will require additional thousands of workers in the coming years, the impact that this, and the rising number of tourists, will have on various aspects of life will start to dent even further the quality of life unless action is taken to meet the likely effects.

The employers are rightly calling for a study to project demographic changes for the next 20 years. It is asking a number of pertinent questions: is the forecast increase in population a bump? Will it plateau? Will the current increase in population continue indefinitely? Will a bigger population become a necessary requirement for economic growth?

With Malta already densely populated, there is clearly a limit to the extent the population can be allowed to grow without causing serious infrastructural and social problems. When traffic congestion is already a major problem, how will the country cope with further increases in the number of cars on the road? Singapore will be solving the problem by not allowing new cars as from February. The country already runs a system of bidding for the right to own and use a vehicle.

It will be political suicide for any party in government in Malta to do the same but the only other alternative is to start making bold decisions now in a bid to ease the problem.

There are other questions that would need to be considered in the context of the study called for by the employers, such as, for example, the extent to which the country can allow further growth in tourism. Quality is already at risk.

Given the very limited land area and, consequently, the size of the population the country can take without experiencing undue problems, the signpost to further economic development leads to what the country has always known to be the best route for Malta: value added operations.