Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1327039
2 maltatoday EXECUTIVE EDITOR Matthew Vella mvella@mediatoday.com.mt Letters to the Editor, MaltaToday, Vjal ir-Rihan, San Gwann SGN 9016 E-mail: dailynews@mediatoday.com.mt Letters must be concise, no pen names accepted, include full name and address maltatoday | SUNDAY • 10 JANUARY 2021 Livelihoods matter Editorial EVEN under the weight of massive disruption from COVID-19, which resulted in a GDP contraction of 9.9% by 2020's third quarter, Malta's State injection of wage supplements helped mitigate the effects of the pandemic. The analysis from German credit rating agency DBRS confirms the trend observed by other rating agencies. Malta's strong public finances provided the government valuable fiscal headroom to soften the pandemic setback. Of course, it was financed by strong economic expansionism, bolstered by a great foreign labour influx, and tax competition and citi- zenship monies. The evolution of the pandemic and its impact on the tourism sector, which is predominantly reliant on foreign tourist arrivals, remain the main eco- nomic uncertainties. When Malta emerges from the pandemic, it will have to contend with lowered tour- ism expectations, one of the backbones of the econ- omy, as well as the reputational risks of its economic model. DBRS says Malta's attractiveness to foreign investment could suffer if measures to address the financial integrity risks and institutional govern- ance weaknesses are deemed insufficient. Even after COVID-19, Malta will have its fair share of institu- tional headaches to contend with. Robert Abela can look at these credit rating agen- cies' 'certifications' as proof of a functioning eco- nomic policy. If anything, it confirms the primacy of the State in the economy, a crucial proposition for a social economy. Without State intervention, the pandemic would have created many more losers in this strong economy; without the national health service and the strong unions backing our teachers, the effects of COVID-19 would have been far more destructive. Abela also has to contend with his own political headaches. His administration is not without crit- icism. His health minister can boast of exception- al results in fending off the pandemic. But the PM must keep an eye out on both the incompetence of certain ministries, as well as the overweening power of others. After his last reshuffle, in which Abela made sure to prune off certain ministers' responsibilities, he could end up alienating some much-needed allies before a forthcoming general election, which he needs to win convincingly to car- ry out the wide-ranging reforms that will secure his legacy and sever it from the Muscat era. Vaccine roll-out Certainly, achieving a balance between the na- tion's health and preserving people's livelihoods is no mean feat: when in conflict, health should take preference. But the country's administrators must fully com- prehend the high expectations that the availability of the vaccine has created now. Clearly, Malta's econ- omy and its dependence on tourism will require a very efficient yet speedy vaccination roll-out, some- thing that appears achievable to go by statements by the Medical Association of Malta. Thousands could be vaccinated weekly if the government employs best practice as has been seen in countries like Is- rael. It will mean employing a nationwide effort of health professionals that include retired physicians and nurses, and allied health workers, and deploy- ment of more inoculation centres. At this point, the business community has no op- tion but to wait for government's roll-out strategy, but surely there must be a way to hasten the process. At the point that government assistance to business- es runs out, the urgency of this strategy will become a dud concern. At that point, will the government be able to tolerate the dismissals from businesses and employers; or will it just resort to an electoral get-out card? Hardly the right kind of response. If it wants to have business moving by summer, it will need to strike up its vaccination effort with milita- ristic zeal. Failure to do so risks throwing the coun- try into a spiral of unemployment and widening the public finance deficit. 9 January 2011 Farrugia: 'PN no longer the same party I knew' NATIONALIST backbencher Jean-Pierre Farrugia, one of the PN's longest-serving MPs and a former President of the party's executive committee, has admitted he is at odds with the performance of the party and the government. He recently broke ranks by renouncing an annual €7,000 salary increase in his MP's hon- orarium, after the government found itself in a maelstrom of accusations of secretly increasing Cabinet ministers' salaries by €26,000. Now, in an interview with MaltaToday, Farru- gia says he no longer recognizes the party and that the PN in no longer what it was in the past. He also identifies with what the former presi- dent of the PN's administrative council Carmel Cacopardo declared in his resignation letter, that he "did not recognize the party anymore". But the MP, a more popular GP in the first electoral district, says he still hopes the PN "recovers its identity". Farrugia said the increase in honoraria for MPs, to be affected with the two years of arrears after ministers were awarded a higher parliamentary honorarium in 2008, had shocked people from all society's strata. "I am stopped by people in the street who are stupefied by the way the government is cut off from their realities. I am sad about this. But this is the way people feel…" Farrugia also said that by increasing their renumeration, the PM had exposed himself to the charge made by Lino Spi- teri of 'buying silence even from the Opposition benches'. "I'm only quoting Spiteri… I'm not saying this is the case," Farrugia says. "But it's one of the worse aspects of right-wing politics, that of thinking one can do anything one likes with money." Farrugia, referring to the ongoing debate on divorce, was adamant in stating that the PN's identity was not based on moral conservatism, but on Christian-democratic values of social justice. "I am a Christian-democrat and a Catholic. But I am not a moral conservative. The Nationalist Party I know is not confession- al. It is a party which whenever confronted by an issue it does not stop from studying and tackling it…" ... Quote of the Week "I can assure you that my departure from office is going to be very boring." Tweet by German Chancellor Angela Merkel while Trump supporters protested outside the Capitol MaltaToday 10 years ago The country's administrators must fully comprehend the high expectations that the availability of the vaccine has created now