I refer to the letter under the heading  ‘Economic growth’ by Frans Camilleri (November 13) in reply to my opinion piece headed ‘Growth driven by foreign workers’ (November 8).

I was always taught that when comparing it has got to be “like with like”.  You cannot compare 1987-2013 with 2012-17, that is 26 years with six years.

In this case the comparison should be five years with five years, that is 2008-12 with 2013-17.

Let’s for the moment compare the population increase. During the first five years (2008-12), according to official statistics,  Malta’s population went up from 410,926 to 422,509 – an increase of 11,583 or 2.8 per cent. During the second five years (2013-17) the population soared to 475,701 – an increase of 53,192 or 12.6 per cent. No doubt the increase is the result of  foreign workers.

Clyde Caruana, chairman of JobsPlus,  said in an interview last February that Maltese nationals only account for a quarter of approximately 10,000 new jobs each year. He also stated that if the current rate of economic growth in Malta persists, the island could be looking at an increase of 28,000 to 30,000 foreign nationals in the next four years. If it were not for foreign workers we will no have the required manpower to fuel our economic growth. Without foreign workers huge parts of the private sector will collapse.

Joseph Muscat, our Prime Minister was reported in this newspaper (July 10, 2018) as saying that “if Malta is to sustain its economic growth it needs an influx of foreigners”. Even though he did not agree with his goodself when on October 29 he ascertained that Malta’s economic growth is not being driven by population increases.

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna on his part  reiterated (September 11, 2018) that Malta’s booming economy could not have been possible without the influx of foreign workers. Without these workers, the labour market would be tightened, leading to rising wages and an uncompetitive economy.

This is the plain truth. Since we do not have the necessary local manpower to sustain our economic growth we have to look for foreign workers. On the other hand we would not have to engage all these foreign workers if the Labour administration followed the previous Nationalist administrations in reducing the public sector.

In less than six years of Labour government, up to April 2018, the public sector added 6,000 employess and now employs 46,884.

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