Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1531292
5 gozotoday | FRIDAY • 10 JANUARY 2025 NEWS Mario Borg is CEO of the Gozo Regional Development Authority Mario Borg IT is encouraging to see that discussions on the regional dimension of Gozo per- sisted during 2024. The hope is always that any debate is conducted in a more mature way and guided by the long-term development of Gozo. A development that is beneficial to the great majority of its residents. 2025 will offer new challenges, never- theless, we will mostly be faced with the same problems that we faced during the last years. Some issues might become bigger over time due to our inability to tackle the root of their cause. How- ever, hope to improve things should never die and it is our role to contin- ue presenting arguments and advocate change to improve Gozo. Certainly, one issue that needs some urgency is quality of our environment. One aspect is the quality of our sur- roundings centres on the target to make Gozo carbon neutrality. This is a big challenge. However, significant efforts were put throughout the year by the Gozo Regional Development Authority (GRDA) in preparing the groundwork that should eventually result in an as- sessment to establish Gozo's current standing in terms of carbon neutrality together with potential actions and an investment plan to support such ac- tions. To evaluate the feasibility and potential risks of this initiative, the Authority conducted a Preliminary Market Consultation (PMC) to gather information on the costs and timelines required to develop a comprehensive action and investment plan. This was followed by a tender that is being cur- rently evaluated. 2025 should see the first tangible progress on this front. On an issue related to carbon neu- trality, 2025 will see the full launch of a very interesting EU funded project under Horizan Europe. Climate Fund- ing 4 Cities project aims to raise aware- ness about climate change and climate mitigation measures among the general public and also amongst primary school students. An educational campaign will be launched to promote such awareness and as part of this campaign, primary school students will be encouraged to walk to and from school to reduce CO2 emissions by minimizing the use of pri- vate vehicles. Furthermore, data collec- tion will take place which should shed important information on the mobility behaviour of this target group and will help formulate measure of how to en- courage more active mobility. During 2025, a number of research documents will be published by the GRDA. One of them will be on the rental market in Gozo which will pro- vide an in-depth review of Gozo's res- idential rental property market and its evolution from a traditionally own- ership-focused housing sector to one marked by increasing rental activity. It highlights the factors driving these changes, including economic growth, demographic shifts and government housing initiatives aimed at enhancing affordability and accessibility. Anoth- er paper that will surely generate a lot of interest deals with self-governance options for Gozo. The paper will look at issues related to greater political au- tonomy from a comparative and histor- ical perspective and will also present argument both in favour and against such devolution in order to help a more informed discussion. This year, the GRDA shall also carry out a regional impact assessment on the social impacts of the Waste Collection Reform, brought about with the intro- duction of the Waste Management Plan 2021-2030. The scope of a Regional Im- pact Assessment (RIA) study is to eval- uate the impacts of a proposal, plan, or programme from a regional perspective rather than at a national level. This will help the GRDA to assess this policy ex post and hopefully will be able to sug- gest changes in line with Gozo realities. Besides the research and the discus- sions, this year should also see more tangible action with regards the green- ing of Victoria and the underground parking. GRDA has put in a lot of effort during the last year at concept stage and the Ministry for Gozo and Plan- ning is now leading the efforts for the financing and the actual infrastructur- al work. The realisation of this project will have a huge impact of quality of life of the residents and will help address key bottlenecks in terms of mobility. On a more personal level, I believe that 2025 should see more effort to re-em- phasise the importance of the Regional Development Strategy for Gozo. I be- lieve the vision and pathway that this strategy presents can be factored-in more convincingly in any decision both at a political and at an administrative level. Secondly, it is my personal view, that for GRDA to be able to play a more central role in introducing a regional perspective to every national discus- sion, the Authority should be directly represented on key national authori- ties. This will give clear visibility of the policies and strategies being formulate from the very onset. Doing so will help bridge the gap between the public nar- rative and the actions. Hopefully, 2025 will see some positive developments in this regard. An outlook for 2025 I believe that 2025 should see more effort to re-emphasise the importance of the Regional Development Strateg y for Gozo. I believe the vision and pathway that this strateg y presents can be factored-in more convincingly in any decision both at a political and at an administrative level.