Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1481355
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 OCTOBER 2022 OPINION 10 Raphael Vassallo OPINION 'Bongu, Ministru'… EVER noticed how certain Cab- inet Ministers are always very quick to tell us 'what needs to be done': even though it is part of their own job description to actually DO all those things (in- stead of merely talking about them); and – in most cases, an- yway – they would also be the only people who even CAN do anything, about the situations they themselves suddenly com- plain about? Take Finance Minister Clyde Caruana, for example. A couple of days ago –presumably, after finding himself stuck in traffic for anywhere up to two hours – he candidly admitted that the entire economic model he him- self had championed for so long, was… 'flawed'. This is how it was reported on this portal: "[Caruana said] 'I was a cheer leader of government policy that favoured a growth in human resources to enable this country to expand its productiv- ity'; adding that this 'encouraged more people to work and helped reduce dependency on social benefits'. "However, he also admitted that the same recipe adopted over the past 10 years is unsuitable for the type of economic development the country should aim for in the next decade. 'People are ex- pecting from the government, not only economic growth but economic development; it is not just a question of having more money in your pocket, but hav- ing a better quality of life in all its totality'." My favourite part, however, was this: "'If we adopt the same recipe; in the morning, rather than being stuck for one hour in traffic, we will be stuck for one-and-a-half or two hours; the tourism sector will invest in ho- tels that will remain empty; and this will apply to other sectors eventually,' he reiterated." Hmmm. I don't about you, but – reading all that again – I find myself vaguely reminded of a certain TV show that was very popular back in the 1980s, when I was growing up. It was called: 'BONĠU, MAL- TA!'; and back in the day, it be- came an instant by-word for: 'Wakey, wakey!'… or 'Rise and shine!'… or 'Gee, you don't say?'… or even (just to spell it out in unnecessarily large letters): 'ABOUT BLOODY TIME YOU REALISED, TOO!" (I mean: it's only what the entire environ- mentalist lobby has been trying to draw government's attention to, unsuccessfully, ever since around 2013…) But never mind all that, be- cause I haven't even got to the truly awkward part yet. Despite Caruana's best efforts to make it look like this realization only just dawned on him over the last few days… this is actually the second time that our Finance Minis- ter has publicly admitted to the same flaws in his government's (and therefore, his own) eco- nomic policies. And, oh look: the last time he made that declaration, was al- most exactly a full year ago… on 25 September 2021, to be precise (by an extraordinary co- incidence, also on the eve of the annual Budget. Who would have ever guessed?) So, just to refresh everyone's memory a little: this is what Clyde Caruana had told us all, roughly this time last year. "Malta must change its eco- nomic model to deprioritise construction and find new ways of generating growth that do not damage the environment [....] 'We need to change the way we think, we need to change the way our economy works. If we repeat the same things, we will get the same results' […] 'People are getting tired of cranes and concrete,' the minister said, in one of the most candid admis- sions to date that the econom- ic model underpinning Malta's growth was flawed." There, see what I mean? Not only is Clyde Caruana once again 'telling us all what needs to be done' (and in almost exactly the same words, too: 'If we adopt the same recipe'… 'If we repeat the same things', etc. etc.)… but the two separate examples that he brings up – traffic, and construc- tion – are both symptoms of ex- actly the same economic policy that he himself had recognised as 'flawed', almost 13 whole months ago. Why, for instance, has the de- mand for construction (and con- sequently, the price of property) sky-rocketed beyond all earthly reason, over the past 10 years? Could it perchance have anything to do with the fact that Malta's population has likewise grown by over 25%, over the same time-pe- riod? (All part of what Caruana himself describes as 'a policy that favoured a growth in human re- sources to enable this country to expand its productivity')? And isn't that also true of Mal- ta's burgeoning traffic problems? I mean… if traffic was already a problem back in 2012, when our country's population stood at a modest 380,000: isn't it obvious that it would only get a lot worse, as we pushed past the half-mil- lion mark, and beyond? (Leaving aside the minor detail that Mal- ta's population is now expected to reach over 700,000, in just 20 years' time…) And what, pray tell, are we to say about Caruana's other exam- ple: the tourism industry, which – he now tells us – "will invest in hotels that will remain empty"? Erm... sorry, Clyde, but there's no need to use the future tense in that sentence. The stark truth is that Malta's tourism industry already IS in- vesting in 'hotels which will re- main empty', even as we speak. And not only that: but its main representative body – the Malta Hotels And Restaurants Associ- ation – has only just published a carrying-capacity report, which estimates that Malta would need a staggering 4.7 million tourists, to reach the same occupancy lev- els of 2019. And that, please note, takes in- to account not just all the new hotels that have been approved (and built) over the past three years; but also, the ones which – as MHRA president Tony Zah- ra tellingly put it, when I inter- viewed him on the subject – are still 'in the process of being ap- proved'. Now: here, as usual, I have to admit that my own mathematical abilities are not up to the task of providing actual figures: but if we already know that the number of tourists visiting Malta in 2019 was 2.8 million – i.e., around half the number that is now required, to fill all those (new and old) ho- tels to around 80% capacity…. .. well, you don't exactly need to be an Alan Turing, to calcu- late that we must have practi- cally doubled the amount of ho- tel-space that is available on the islands, in the past three years alone. And there's a reason for that, you know: it's not just the pop- ulation of Malta (and all the en- suing traffic congestion prob- lems) that have exploded, as a direct result of Caruana's flawed economic policies… so, too, has the number of building permits churned out by the Planning Au- thority.