Our size has always presented its fair share of challenges. As our ancestors could attest, it’s not easy to live on an island with no rivers, resources and a lack of wildlife.
Yet the Maltese, perhaps genetically, have always taken on challenges head on. Even more so when competing against those who are used to abundance. This can be seen from the success achieved by the Maltese diaspora living abroad who have distinguished themselves in all areas.
Yet the success of the Maltese is not limited to our diaspora. Over the past seven years, Malta has seen tremendous economic growth. Businesses from all over the globe have been pinpointing Malta as a place where their investments could yield fair returns.
The opportunities that have presented themselves, however, have not been without challenges.
Robust economic growth has brought more and more people looking for a better future to our shores, and this fact has added pressure on our infrastructure – both in terms of transport as well as housing.
In this regard, proper and sustainable planning has never been more important than it is at this moment in time. Knee-jerk reactions to problems which we should have seen coming when our economy started growing will do us no good, and they will only serve to harm us in the long term.
I was pleased to see that the environment and planning were assigned to the same minister under the premiership of Robert Abela, as the two go hand in hand. The fact that this action was undertaken means that, from now on, we should be seeing an improvement when it comes to planning in general.
We should strive to engage interested parties and take up more initiatives which help us arrive at our goal – that of being future proof
As a government, we must keep in mind that we are here to serve our citizens – all of our citizens, not just companies and big businessmen who own whole streets of property. As the saying goes, people should be given priority over profits.
When the new cabinet was announced, a lot of people congratulated me on being moved from the Foreign Affairs Ministry to the Office of the Prime Minister for what they perceived to be a show of trust by the incoming prime minister.
Yet one thing which I noticed was that a lot of these people struggled when it came to explaining the real functions of my ministry, which is a new one.
This reaction was not limited to the common man on the street. In an article published some days ago, a journalist jokingly remarked that my ministry (responsible for sustainable development, social dialogue and the implementation of the electoral manifesto) should be called MOPMRSDSDIM in short, “a title so long and vague it seems more like a handout”.
Well, Malta’s track record in sustainable development hasn’t always been top notch, and hence the journalist’s pun.
However, rest assured that the MOPMRSDSDIM ministry will exercise its powers according to law in order to ensure a sustainable future for our country. The Sustainable Development Act, enacted in 2012, has far and wide-reaching powers which, up till now, have not been fully utilised.
Among these, Article 5 (f) of the same act notes that the competent authority has the power to review government and ministry policies, plans, programmes and projects to ensure that they are in line with the sustainable development strategy and to ensure that all ministries and line entities within the public administration, factor sustainable development in their workings.
Moreover, the Act also provides for the setting up of the Sustainable Development Network and the Guardian of the Future Generations, whose task is to promote and safeguard sustainable development respectively.
To this end, the first step should be to see that the ministry for sustainable development is fulfilling its functions as laid down by the law. However, once that has been done, we should not pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.
Rather than that, we should strive to engage interested parties and take up more initiatives which help us arrive at our goal – that of being future proof. A lot of challenges lie ahead.
Yet as Archibald Witwicky notes in Transformers, without any sacrifice there can never be no victory.
Carmelo Abela is minister within the Office of the Prime Minister.