Gozitan MP Chris Said is demanding to create a regional Council for Gozo to grant it autonomy over its local affairs. He also says that Gozo is contributing more money to Malta than it is receiving by the government – this is impossible. Statistics show that the Gozitan’s productivity rate is significantly lower than their Maltese counterparts, one-third of the Gozitan workforce works for the government and Gozo gets many additional subsidies from various Ministries apart from the expenditure of the Ministry of Gozo (for example the subvention to the Gozo Channel which comes from the Ministry of Transport – then there are the subventions in education and health).
There are no official statistics on the specific tax revenue coming from Gozo but to claim that Gozo contributes to Malta more than it receives is a gross misunderstanding of economics. Chris Said made this argument to insist on a Gozitan regional council that would decide on all of the matters in Gozo – this idea is downright stupid and it is aligned with the Nationalist Party’s current turn to populism with myths of “decentralsiation”.
The problem with Gozo is that it is still too insular and isolated and decentralisation will only make matters worse. Gozo is already decentralised with its own Ministry and this is already a populist aberration. There is even no need for a Ministry of Gozo except to distribute favours and jobs to Gozitans. Centralisation of services would make services more efficient and overall integration would improve productivity because economies are more efficient when they scale – not when they become more isolated.
Everyone wants to seek personal and opportunistic interests in this debate when the only and obvious logical conclusions is to build a bridge to Gozo further integrate it with the Maltese economy. Gozo doesn’t need isolation – it needs normality and integration. More nepotism and corruption will not solve this.
Chris Said is peddling populism for Gozo without any economic sense. Imagine if the Northern Harbour Region demands decentralisation because their tax revenue is higher than the allocated government expenditure. Are you out of your minds?
Website Editor
Historian and Publisher
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