FOI commends Labour's economic document

Federation of Industry president Anton Borg yesterday described the Malta Labour Party's document on social and economic regeneration as a very commendable one and said the party should not shoot down its own proposals.

Speaking at a meeting between the FOI and an MLP delegation headed by deputy leader Charles Mangion, Mr Borg said a number of issues that were being discussed in the social pact talks were touched upon in the MLP document.

Mr Borg said the FOI was worried that discussions about the social pact, which were meant to find ways to make Malta more competitive and to decrease operational expenses, degenerated into the question of what employers would give in return for measures that had to be taken.

"People have to understand that it is in everyone's interests to enhance competitiveness. The number of productive hours in Malta is low compared to our competitors and when measures are taken to redress this, these are not taken for the employer's benefit but in everyone's interests," Mr Borg said.

"What we find worrying is that when the government takes measures that are similar to those being proposed by the MLP document, the MLP criticises them. On the other hand, the Chalmers report on education is saying similar things to what the MLP is saying. We need to change the way parties speak," Mr Borg said.

Mr Borg said the FOI had prepared a document with comments about the MLP's proposals, which it wanted to pass on to the party confidentially but had no objection if the party wanted to make it public.

Some of the things proposed by the MLP were costly to industry and to the country and a list of priorities needed to be drawn up of the issues to be tackled first, Mr Borg said.

Dr Mangion said the MLP document was meant for discussion and would be approved at a general conference following a series of internal discussions.

He said the MLP was a political party and had to look at a broader scenario and find the right balance between all sectors of society. But industry was an important aspect and both export-oriented as well as industry that produced for local consumption had to be sustained.

Doing this had many ramifications that entailed changes in the educational system to ensure that today's students would be tomorrow's able workforce, he said.

Labour was recently taken to task by the Nationalist Party and the Union Haddiema Maghqudin for proposing in the document to eliminate workers' quarterly bonuses, which the MLP has denied by insisting that the proposals do not bind the party's policies for the future.