MHRA − Now it’s time to move forward
Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association has congratulated Dr Robert Abela on his election as new leader of the Partit Laburista and prime minister of Malta.
During the past two months, Maltese politics went through a storm and like all storms there have been casualties, including the loss of business by, among others, restaurants and to a lesser degree functions normally held in hotels. Our international reputation has suffered and governance and rule of law matters escalated to the top of the national agenda driven mostly by civil society. This was characterised by a lot of passion and in general constructive recommendations including those presented by the Partit Nazzjonalista during an extraordinary meeting held in December on good governance.
Indeed, with the benefit of hindsight we can now easily state that our democratic system is reasonably in good health and performed well during such serious crises. The right to protest was respected, individuals allegedly implicated in the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia have been apprehended and are now going through the process dictated by the rule of law, politicians assumed political responsibilities by relinquishing their posts and the election of the new prime minister went through a rigorous and open process led by one of our political parties. These are matters which should not be taken for granted and MHRA believes, that following the storm, Malta’s democratic process has now the potential to come out stronger than ever before. Now it’s time to move forward.
The election of Dr Abela as the new prime minister is the first step. MHRA believes that Dr Abela’s priority should be to restore international confidence and regain the Maltese population’s confidence in the institutions of the country. Dr Abela should continue to build on those strong economic and social foundations which he has inherited while attending to the deficiencies which showed up in the last months.
From a tourism perspective, which remains one of the prime motors of our economy, MHRA president Tony Zahra looks towards Dr Abela as new prime minister and his new Cabinet of Ministers to concentrate initiatives along strategic thrusts which aim to ensure improved: 1) sustainable conditions for the economy and 2) execution of the rule of law through a more robust governance framework.
As always MHRA pledges full support to Dr Abela as Malta’s new prime minister and whoever will be nominated as Minister of Tourism and his Cabinet in general. “We have a lot of work to do so let’s start immediately to get Malta where it deserves to be,” concluded Zahra.