A thousand proposals – one purpose

The basis of policy-making is to ensure a better quality of life for our people.

This was precisely my message the day in which together with Daniel Micallef and Ramona Attard, we launched the ‘100 ideas’ project back in August 2020.

Fast-forward 19 months on the day, the Prime Minister last week presented to the country our electoral programme: a thousand proposals that encapsulate our vision for a better future, a stronger nation and a prosperous economic model which aspires to place the ambition of a superior quality of life for all at its very core.

Maltese businesses will be in the driving seat of our sustainable economic vision. Just like we did during the toughest months of the pandemic we shall be supporting and incentivising our commercial community as they transform their business models into sustainable ones, creating quality careers for our workforce and deliver value to our people.

On corporate tax, we will deliver on what others always said would never happen. Without any preconditions we will reduce corporate tax by 10% across the board. On top of that we are removing the entire tax burden from all reinvested profits.

We want to make it easier for businesses to invest in their own transition towards sustainable business models as this is a critical first step in the levelling up towards a decarbonised economy.

We have always believed that incentives work much better than irrational mandatory requirements. That is why we will finance 40% of capital investment made by Maltese and Gozitan companies which have a positive environmental and societal impact. Same will apply to corporate projects involving renewable energy and digitalisation.

We will do this whilst we hand-hold our self-employed and small enterprises in monetising their energy efficiency potential through fully-funded energy audits. These recommendations will be further complimented by tax credits that induce the actual implementation of energy-efficiency related projects.

We want our workforce to be at the forefront of this economic vision. The rapidity by which our companies can drive this economic transition depends heavily on the ability of our invaluable human capital to support all this. We want to extend these new opportunities to our workers and we will be fully funding training programmes linked to green job reskilling.

Additionally, a Labour government will be financing 75% of the salaries of all new green careers created in the private sector. We will keep supporting these newly created employment opportunities for the first three years so as to minimise the inherent business risk involved in new ventures.

We want to sway board decisions towards prioritising green and environmental business projects over conventional and unsustainable ones. In order to do so we will create a financial ecosystem which makes it easier for finance and capital to flow towards committed green companies.

Interest on green bonds issued by companies on our Stock Exchange will be untaxed. This will create a positive advantage of 15% for all investors who opt for green bond instruments – a move that will reduce the risk of financing these projects whilst enhancing the rewards for Maltese investors that commit their money to green Maltese companies.

As we presented our proposals for a brighter future, the Nationalist Party resorted to the old way of doing politics: lying their way through the last weeks of the campaign. The wage supplement was and still is a crucial tool that safeguarded employment during the toughest times our businesses went through in more than half a century. Blatantly spreading lies about this financial grant as we extended this assistance for the month of April says a lot about Bernard Grech and where his real principles stand.