Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1540705
5 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 OCTOBER 2025 INTERVIEW The following are excerpts from the interview. The full interview can be found on maltatoday. com.mt as well as our Facebook and Spotify pages. PHOTOS: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTA TODAY Apart from a shortage in workers, what problem are you expecting government to address in the upcoming budget? …The biggest problem that remains is unfair competition. Let's say you buy something online. A while ago, you didn't even need to pay VAT, so you would already save on that 18%. Importers are enrolled in a packaging scheme and pay for someone to pick this up, as well as the polluter pays system, which doesn't affect online shopping. You also have the Sicily ferry, where everything comes in without regulation. If you buy alcohol from Sicily and bring it over on the ferry, you won't pay excise duties… Obviously apart from all this, there is an infinite supply of businesses in Malta, be it restaurants or other businesses… We don't mind because that's what we always wanted. So, you've fallen victims to this massive competition? You can't stop progress. I'm old enough to remember governments that used to restrict business but that's a completely different time. You've just released this survey conducted among your members. They've listed overpopulation as Malta's biggest concern. But their biggest concern as businesses is lack of workers. These two concerns don't make sense together. What's happening? We realised that this doesn't make sense. The survey is taken from a sample of 450, which isn't small, but you have to list what the respondents say. Maybe they (business owners) speak about overpopulation with the family at home, but when they go to their business, they think differently. We have to manage it. If you have a guesthouse, do you want the tourism minister to say, "no more tourists," so we don't have overpopulation?... I think government should create incentives to decrease the dependency on workers and foster more digitalised and modern workplaces to boost our production with fewer people. That may be the solution, but where are these two contrast- ing problems coming from? Do we as Maltese want to have it all? …The Maltese want to have their cake and eat it. I was Swieqi's mayor. The parking problem there started long ago, and we were thinking of creating reserved parking spaces. Everyone thought their parking space would be in front of their home, but I explained that it wasn't going to work this way… they didn't like it… The population has undoubt- edly increased throughout the years. So how is it that businesses still aren't find- ing enough workers? Demand is always increasing… People have more money to spend, this isn't politics but it's what our members are seeing. With more money comes more business and so you need more workers… Maltese people want to work less because we are now concerned with our quality of life. Free time or time with one's family has to be compensated somehow, that's why we always need workers. The problem is how many of them (foreign workers) go back. Few people go back but more come here. I met with Identita's new CEO who told me they have 12,000 new applications. That's no joke. We have to see how this new labour migration policy will work, but if I need a worker, I'm going to get him. We also have to see what new budget measures will be implemented and whether these will reduce the need for workers. Let's zoom out a bit. Many people are calling for a change in Malta's econom- ic model. Do you agree with this? And if so, what would a new economic model look like? I disagree. I think our economic model has been coming since the 1990s. Without getting into politics, the PN created these economic sectors which we are still using. To change the route, you need to know what you have to change. I always tell the prime minister not to intervene. I tell him, "Don't say there are too many hotels, so no more hotels." You see retail outlets popping up everywhere and think, "how will they survive?" but they do survive. They survive at the cost of other things. The costs are starting to bother many more people. Everyone says they want change but no one is explaining what they want to change. We have all these sectors, but what do you want to remove? Don't you think growth for growth's sake is unsustain- able? Do you think there should be some brakes? As soon as you apply the brakes, you are discriminating between the sectors, and I don't even think the EU would let us do this. If we introduce restrictions, we can go to court and win… You're a journalist, so you speak to more people than I do. Is there anyone who suggests a new model? They say that we should change the model but then they leave it at that. The problems [brought about by the economic model] are supposed to be managed by people.