Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/208710
23 maltatoday, SUNDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2013 and career difficulties for the female gender. In fact, lack of affordable childcare centers was touted as the main culprit from keeping more women from joining the workforce. And understandably so, too. Women who do not have anyone to keep their small children can hardly ignore this fact and take a job anyway. Affordable, indeed, free, childcare facilities will go a long way into solving this issue. Small businesses also have good reasons to be satisfied with this budget. SMEs are, in their large majority, geared towards the servicing of the domestic market. The lowering of energy tariffs will go a long way to reducing operating costs, which directly impact the bottom line. The measures taken in this budget allow the businesses to benefit from the increase income in people's pockets. Measures such as the reduction in income tax and the reduction in utility bills will embolden the public to spend more, with all the positive multiplier benefits on local business. Highly commendable is the relaxing of the CVA regulations for Valletta. Businesses in the capital city were being highly penalised by parking difficulties and hefty CVA bills. It will now cost nothing to go into Valletta and park for most of the day. This is also good news for shoppers who all know that Valletta offers just about every franchise, brand, every type of merchandise and retail outlet, as well as cafés and restaurants, in an ambience of history and culture – a stark contrast to shopping in sterile shopping malls. Valletta, as a beautiful, working city, deserves attention, and this budget has started to address this need. Admittedly, more needs to be done to ensure that Valletta becomes the vibrant city it deserves to be. Lack of parking spaces will have to be addressed. Gaining favor with certain sectors of society by simply increasing benefits is a strategy which does not hold water in the 21st century. In the current economic times, people must be helped not just for the sake of being helped, but must be encouraged to help themselves. Gradual cut backs of unemployment benefits for the long term unemployed who manage to find a job, and the funding for the re-training of people over a certain age, go a long way in encouraging people to actively search for jobs, rather than waiting for the monthly social benefit cheque. The idea behind this is precisely to encourage people to have the inner initiative to improve themselves, and rely less on the hand downs of the state. Another area in which this budget has taken clear steps forward is with regards to animal rights. The proposal to ban circuses using animal performers, from Malta is a highly commendable step. Civilised societies cannot allow themselves to be stuck with cruel traditions just for the sake of tradition. Putting such ban in place will hopefully help in ensuring that animals are treated with respect and not tortured to perform. Just as sensible a decision is the banning of horses from roads during rush hour. Such a measure will not only help to alleviate traffic problems in Malta, but will also help to reduce the risks faced by horses being manoeuvre amongst the crazy traffic. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has made it clear that the aim of this budget was to make work pay. While ultimately the proof of the pudding is in the eating, the first budget for this legislature has clearly set the tone for this administration. It is a budget which is encouraging Increasing employability skills to combat unemployment T In the current economic times, people must be helped not just for the sake of being helped, but must be encouraged to help themselves work and initiative and leaving more money into people's pockets while keeping our finances in check. It's ultimately a budget that will help Malta do yet another leap forward. Like the 'sorpesa' in the Kinder chocolate egg, we did not know what to expect, but the surprise was, undoubtedly, a pleasant one. Marlene Mizzi is a Member of the European Parliament here is no doubt that structural unemployment has hit the European Union. The recent EU analysis confirms this. However, remedial action taken by Malta has been widely acclaimed and international agencies confirm that Malta has been one of the better performing economies of the eurozone. Although a majority of EU states have faced an increase in unemployment, surveys also show a clear shortage of employability skills, especially in sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics and business skills. A shortage of 'skilled' people leads to a crisis in employability. Building specific 'skills' programmes is essential both for the unemployed as well as those in employment, especially in those industries which are under threat. This 'skill' building exercise should also be extended to attract women to the workplace as well as to keep older people in a meaningful labour market. This applies to all sectors of employment. Attracting private investment is crucial to Malta. The 'Malta Attractiveness survey', conducted recently among executives of non-Maltese owned businesses operating in Malta gives encouraging results. A vast majority of respondents have expressed confidence that Malta has the ability to overcome the ongoing economic crisis, with 93% of respondents feeling positive about the way the country has handled this problem. However, the same respondents have expressed negative views about the required specialised skills in the current labour market. In fact, whereas in 2012, 43% were able to find people with the right specialised skills, the 2013 survey shows that only 36% managed to find the required skills in the local labour market. In manufacturing, 53% of respondents encountered problems when searching for the specialised skills from the Opinion Evarist Bartolo local pool of human resources, although a clear majority believe that Malta has the right legislative framework for key players in this set sector, to set up in Malta. The Financial Services sector is a specialised and important sector for Malta's economy. Their response that Malta has a limited supply of human resources in this field is worrying and needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Shortage of skills in the ICT, telecommunications and iGaming industries is even more worrying. Only 23% of executives in this sector state that they did not encounter any problems in the engagement of employees with the required skills in this sector. Malta has to work hard in increasing our attractiveness. It is important that employability 'skills' are addressed and that higher and specialised educational opportunities are available locally. Confidence in Malta should be matched with efforts to successfully overcome the crisis. Malta has to look forward to increase the number of specialised individuals to meet the demand. There has to be a significant increase in educational and vocational training. Our labour force should have the opportunities for placement and work opportunities, both locally and abroad. Malta has to address this skills shortage through increased availability of these skill sets. This will result in additional employment in Malta and give our work force added advantage in seeking employment both locally and abroad. In this increasingly sophisticated economic climate, Malta has to create the supply that will meet the demand. Evarist Bartolo is Minister for Education CHECK OUT EVARIST BARTOLO'S LATEST COLUMNS ON http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/en/blogs