‘Proud salesman’ prime minister says his job is to ‘promote my country’

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat is proud to be called “a salesman”, a tag adopted by the Opposition party to criticize Muscat’s numerous trips abroad to publicise the sale of passports through the IIP.

Since the launch of the programme, a total of 73 passports have been given to main applicants.

“I have been accused of being a salesman many times and today I publicly declare myself guilty as charged. Frankly, it is a compliment. My job is to promote my country and our businesses. That is what I ask all my ministers and diplomatic corps to do when representing our country,” Muscat said.

He was speaking during the launch of the country’s attractiveness survey by EY.

“This small island is out there in the world competing for business, and that is why we need a nationwide effort to keep competitive. Malta is a good place to invest.”

He said it was not by chance that Chinese companies were looking to invest in the island’s economy and it was “not by accident” that investors from Singapore, Israel, Azerbaijan and Turkey keep coming.

“The top world business players are global citizens with no particular country they call home. That is a sector we are particularly interested to attract. Our citizenship programme has helped Malta become more visible on the world map. It is precisely because we had the courage to reach out to this new reality that we have become one of Europe’s most open and welcoming economies.”

Muscat said the economy has seen a 5% growth, a level of growth Malta has not experienced in a long time. Unemployment levels reached record lows, with less than 5,000 persons out of employment – something which the country has not seen in twenty years. Deficit is “well under control at 1.6% and our national debt is stabilizing and below the EU average”.

He pointed out that numbers, however, do not measure the country’s mood but Eurostat surveys confirmed that “the Maltese are the most optimistic people in Europe”.

Yet Malta had more untapped potential and there were many challenges and new realities the country needed to face to prepare “for the next big opportunity”.

Technology and the impact of globalization on the labour market were the main challenges while noting that the education system had probably not been quick to adapt to “the supersonic changes” the world has seen in the last 20 years. Attracting children to technology from a young age – the one tablet per child policy – was one way to address it.

The next challenge was to improve the general upkeep, cleanliness and the environment of the country.

“I am disappointed with the general level of upkeep of the country. It is time for all of us, political leaders, businesses and stakeholders to team up to give our share to clean up the country. I want our people to live in a clean environment as well as six-star investments getting six-star surroundings,” he said.

Another major challenge was infrastructure. Roads were built to cater for a population of less than half a million people. In actual fact, however, at any point in time in August, the population ballooned to around 600,000 as tourism reached record levels.

“Our streets are clogged with traffic and by the end of the day, some 14 new cars will be registered and released onto Maltese roads. Traffic impacts the economy and has a direct effect on people’s lives and businesses.

There are no short-term solutions to this long-standing problem. But even in such bottlenecks, we believe the private industry can team up with government to find sustainable solutions.”

The Prime Minister said the government was “fixing the roof as the economic sun is shining”.

“The economy can grow faster and we can create more jobs. We can have less people on benefits and more people taking up the many available jobs in the private sector. We want to lift people’s income further and address the many pensioners who still find it hard to make ends meet.

“We just need to keep taking decisions, even controversial ones, which will in turn reap benefits – not now, but in 10 to 20 years’ time. I believe Malta can do better. And the reason I am so optimistic about our future is because everybody in this country, including all – or most of you – in this hall, believe that hard work and firm decision-making and taking will take us to new heights.”