Malta has been ranked 56th out of 131 countries in this year’s Global Competitiveness Index published by the World Economic Forum. Among the 27 members of the European Union, Malta’s competitiveness is ranked at the bottom of the heap in the 24th place above Greece, Romania and Bulgaria.
In the survey carried out for this ranking, the majority of Maltese business leaders identified inefficient government bureaucracy as the biggest obstacle to doing business in Malta. A country’s ability to compete successfully in today’s globalised economy and improve the quality of life of its citizens depends on the quality of its governance, the quality of its decision making, its project management, the efficiency of its institutions, the entrepreneurial spirit of its people in business and the talents, skills and ethical behaviour of its politicians and its citizens.
Governments cost money: not only through the taxes and charges they impose on citizens but also through the time they take to reach decisions and through the quality of decisions they take, whether they serve to generate wealth or waste resources. It has taken us more than 60 years in Malta not to rebuild the bombed theatre at the entrance of Valletta. It has taken us more than seven years in Malta to decide where not to construct a golf course. It takes us years to decide which beach to extend and which perched beach to build. It takes us years to finish a road, a passenger terminal and rebuild a bridge.
In the meantime more successful countries regenerate their harbours and depressed areas, build golf courses and enhance their beaches and move on to offer a higher quality of life to their citizens and those who visit them. Efficient countries manage to take good decisions fast to enable them to respond to changes taking place in the world. Inefficient countries lag behind as they take long to reach decisions that are often poor and that respond to what happened yesterday rather than what is going to happen tomorrow.
The cost of government can be measured in the amount of time and the quality of the decisions taken by the private sector through market mechanisms and public institutions through their decision-making procedures.
Every country has its own specific reality, culture and ways of doing things. Every factor that contributes to the cost and quality of decisions taken determine the extent to which the country moves ahead or lags behind. The role of political parties and politicians is crucial for a country to forge ahead and succeed or lag behind and fail. Ever country is a complex system made up of different elements that interact with each other and shape the outcome. Where leadership, new ideas and initiatives are lacking, the country stagnates and the quality of life deteriorates and a new element has to appear to change and break this cycle. In a democratic country with a parliamentary system where rival parties compete for votes with different ideas and programmes it is up to the citizens to decide the direction to be taken.
An increasing number of people feel that our country needs a change in government and a new beginning. Even people who have always voted PN feel that this party has been too long in government, it has run out of ideas, energy and good ministers to run the country.
Our islands need a new beginning. We do not simply need a new party in government. That party needs to have new ideas of how it goes about reviving this country. There is a better way of governing this country and Labour is showing the way. The plans that the Labour Party has drawn up in the last four years and is still in the process of drawing up in partnership with business, unions and civil society show that the party has the open, focused and flexible attitude indispensable to lead the country successfully in tomorrow’s uncharted waters. The Labour Party has spent the last four years listening and learning from the people of Malta and Gozo, reaching out beyond red and blue, beyond narrow party interests and tapping all the talents in the country of people in business, unions and civil society. We have worked hard with them to prepare our plans to give a new beginning to our country. Once in government we will continue to work hand in hand in a national and wide coalition of the best and brightest people of goodwill who want to improve our country.

Evarist Bartolo is Shadow Minister for Tourism