At a Cabinet meeting held in the Chamber of Commerce building, Prime Minister Robert Abela announced the Government’s vision towards a stronger economy and a better quality of life for the people of Malta and Gozo. Speaking to society’s representatives, the Prime Minister conveyed a strong vision for Malta based on five pillars.
The Prime Minister stated, “I will not look back. But I will give the basis on which the government is working to continue building on the good that has been achieved and rectify where things could have been done better. I don’t want to detract anything from the good we’ve achieved. But today we have enough experience to propose together a new economic model based on a principle around which we must build: a better quality of life. “
The first point of principle is that of good governance, where the Prime Minister mentioned that Malta already has the basis and paved the way for this, as we have seen in recent weeks with the introduction of new laws, including those based on the recommendations of the Venice Commission.
The second principle is based on economic growth for a better quality of life. With regard to this principle, Dr. Abela emphasized the social aspect, where he mentioned that housing should be a priority and said that the Government will be seeing and ensuring that our country attracts a better quality of tourist. Apart from this, the Prime Minister reiterated that the environment will be central to all this. He stressed how our country has the ongoing challenge of waste management and will strive for a cleaner Malta, with less dust in the air, with more open spaces and better planning decisions.
The third point of principle is that of education for a healthy long-term economy. The Government’s goal now is to modernize our country’s educational infrastructure, in particular how educators and students are being prepared.
Dr Abela stated, “This leads me to what I believe should be the focus of our economy which in the coming years, will prepare our students in areas such as Life Sciences, robotics, coding, IT infrastructure, software development , Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Quantum, Cyber Security and Industry 4.0 – the fourth industrial revolution. These are not the future. These are currently taking place in the fields of manufacturing and new industries that we are already managing to attract to Malta.”
The fourth principle is the improvement of Malta’s infrastructure. Here the Prime Minister also announced that the project for our country to have a second fibre optic cable between Malta and Gozo has come to an end and thus we will attract more new industries to the island of the three hills. The construction of all roads in Malta and Gozo, better transport systems and digital infrastructure will also be high on the Government’s agenda when it comes to the country’s infrastructure.
The last and fifth point of principle is that by 2050 Malta will be free from carbon pollution, with intermediate targets reached every ten years.
The Prime Minister stressed, “I want the best minds in Malta to come together to achieve this goal, which is not only environmental, but also economic, based on a new model that I want to see for Malta. This is a model that goes beyond one legislature but will cater for some six legislatures. We have to move further from just words and launch preparations. We need to seriously incentivize transport modes that reduce emissions. We need to ensure that all the decisions we make will protect our air quality.”