We wisely and cautiously want to help businesses, self-employed, and the industry as whole to prepare for the months and years to come, with the necessary support that will pave the way for the path of regeneration and the growth in their productivity. 

This was the main message led by Ministers Clyde Caruana, Silvio Schembri and Miriam Dalli during interventions at business breakfast by the Government of Malta. With the theme ‘Towards a New Prosperity’, the business breakfast brought together social, industrial partners, and stakeholders to discuss the Government’s vision for Malta after the pandemic. 

Minister for Finance and Employment Clyde Caruana said, “the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is fifty times greater than the impact of the 2008 recession, and therefore, the consequences will be much larger. The Government is doing its utmost to ensure that our country continues safeguarding the Maltese and Gozitan families’ best interests for the coming months and years.”

During his address, Minister Caruana said that currently in Europe, the ongoing discussion is on the ways to increase the public revenues mainly through increasing taxes. He said that this is not the case for Malta since businesses would not cope with another blow after the pandemic. Minister Caruana also mentioned how, unlike other countries, unemployment in our country remained at the same levels. This is the result of a Government which has acted wisely over the last years and has embraced a prudent fiscal policy which created consecutive surpluses. Thus, in such a difficult time, this government has the flexibility to be able to manoeuvre and bear this burden.

Minister Caruana said that the government would continue to work so that our country will maintain this momentum and businesses will be able to keep people in employment in the coming months. Simultaneously, the government will also be looking at how to inject the necessary capital into those sectors that suffered the most significant impact during the pandemic.

Economy and Industry Minister Silvio Schembri said that at such a challenging moment this Government saw that it gives certainty to our families and businesses so much that it has led to attracting new investment to our country among businesses already established in our country. 

“In this challenging period the Maltese economy has demonstrated its resilience, agility, flexibility as well as its adaptability. It is therefore important to continue to sustain its resilience by continuing to diversify it and strengthen the existing one,” said Minister Schembri. 

It is right on these strong principles on which we must pave the way for economic growth. “Hence, in the coming weeks I will be presenting an economic vision document for the next 10 years. This shall include working documents over a lesser period of years that will include more focused measures particularly on which industries we will be attracting, what kind of investment is needed, as well as the skills sought after. This will amalgamate together other strategies launched to combine them together towards one direction. This will follow a wider consultation process of the general public,” Minister Schembri said.  

Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Sustainable Development Miriam Dalli stressed that we must continue to support companies already established in Malta and Gozo and who intend to continue to grow in Malta and Gozo. “While we continue to attract new investment, we must continue to support existing companies so that they have the opportunity to create new jobs as well.”

She explained that Malta wanted to seize the opportunity to look at things differently, in particular the sustainability of the economy and environmental protection. 

“Research and innovation are the key to move towards this direction. This can be done by investing in more renewable technology that makes sense for the size of our country, and those similar to us,” Minister Dalli said.