In his letter ‘Economic performance’ (July 9), Frans Camilleri questions my argument regarding the sustainability of Malta’s current economic model. I focused on the rapid increase of certain sectors, such as construction and e-gaming, which depend too much on factors outside our control.

About construction, although the statistical share of construction has gone down between 2012 and 2017, it still grew substantially in absolute terms (by 27 per cent over five years). Its share has fallen because the share of services increased by a higher percentage. Construction has still grown at an unsustainable rate and if there is a slowdown of immigrants we will end up with an economic bubble. Also, construction is causing imbalances in the banking sector, which if not properly taken care of may eventually lead to financial trouble.

In e-gaming, a change in tax legislation might see many enterprises leave Malta. This will, in turn, have a major impact on property and construction.

I also refer to the sale of passports for government revenue, which is surely not a sustainable form of production, especiallyif the European Commission decides to impose binding restrictions on countries that sell such passports. Let us keep in mind that Malta’s passports are lucrative precisely because we are an EU member state.

My argument was simply a call for the encouragement of more sustainable forms of production.