The economic impact of the COVID pandemic is 50 times greater than the 2008 recession, Finance Minister Clyde Caruana said on Friday.
Addressing a business event, Caruana said the government was doing its utmost to ensure that the interests of Maltese and Gozitan families were safeguarded in the coming months and years.
Caruana said that contrary to other European countries, unemployment levels remained stable and the government was not seeking to increase public revenues by raising taxes.
He put this down to the "prudent fiscal policy" which created consecutive surpluses.
"Thus, in such a difficult time, this government has the flexibility to be able to manoeuvre and bear this burden", Caruana said.
Addressing the same event, Prime Minister Robert Abela underpinned good governance as being key to Malta’s economic success.
The Prime Minister vowed that the government’s efforts to improve governance would not stop once the Moneyval assessment has been concluded.
Abela said reforms of the judiciary, police force and regulatory agencies were all essential to ensure Malta was ready to face the challenges ahead.
The government has been striking an increasingly optimistic tone about the assessment, which could lead to Malta’s eventual grey-listing by the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF) if the island is viewed as not having done enough to combat money-laundering.
On Friday Abela said the COVID pandemic should not be allowed to limit the country’s ambition and optimism.
He emphasised how the government had offered an unprecedented fiscal package to support businesses and save jobs during the pandemic, instead of opting for austerity measures.
The Prime Minister said the strategy had proven successful so far, citing how credit agencies continued to confirm Malta’s positive outlook whilst downgrading much larger countries.
He added that his leadership had heralded a new phase of the Labour movement’s plans for the future. While some had interpreted the ‘continuity’ slogan used during his leadership campaign as meaning nothing would change, the slogan meant he would continue introducing the necessary changes that had been the hallmark of the Labour movement.
Abela also spoke about the need to ensure education was a continuous process in people’s lives.
On the infrastructure front, Abela said the government had embarked on a massive investment to revamp Malta’s roads network.
“This is just the beginning”, he vowed.
Abela mentioned the need to also look at revamping industrial estates that catered for a different era predating the use of modern technologies. He said investment in ports and the airport is vital.
He noted that the environment was the main pillar upon which the government’s vision for the next 10 years was built. He said that construction needed to operate differently, with more emphasis on renewable energy and recycling of waste.