Twelve months of COVID-19 – Looking ahead

We took on the challenge of the past twelve months by refusing to accept that COVID-19 would stop us in our tracks

“It’s been 12 months like no other, but we reach this anniversary of the pandemic with Malta leading the rest of the European Union in vaccinating its people against COVID-19.”

And determination paid off. Against all the odds, we have launched new services, invested in technology, supported staff, made huge leaps in reforms and generated revenues to benefit the economy.

It makes sense to plan for a crisis even when you don’t know what shape that crisis will take. Two moves before the pandemic stood Malta in good stead. We had invested heavily in technology to develop e-government and were able to make the switch to home working, and online service delivery, seamlessly. And we had run a citizenship by investment initiative, to attract new talent and stronger investment to our islands, which raised more than €1.5 billion for the nation’s coffers.

Big changes have taken place at Identity Malta, which has adopted state of the art biometric security for ID cards and brought in new procedures to cover all life events from birth to death. At the start of the pandemic, it became possible to register a birth by post, without having to visit the office at Mater Dei, and within weeks new software had been deployed to allow all births and deaths to be registered online. We also recognised that many couples had to postpone their marriage, so we came to their aid by not requesting payment for a new application.

Identity Malta also stepped in to extend visas for students and residence and work permits for those working in healthcare or helping the elderly and disabled. In conjunction with Jobsplus, new procedures were introduced to assist foreign nationals who form an important part of the labour market in Malta.

All these enhanced services were provided by staff who themselves faced the upheaval of adjusting to home working, and they deserve great credit for the dedication they showed.

The government has spent thousands of millions supporting the economy with measures such as the Wage Supplement, to ensure livelihoods and place the country in a good position for bouncing back. We secured record funding in European Union grants and also relaunched our residency by investment initiative. It is now based on a residency requirement and is administered by a new agency, Community Malta. We are continuing dialogue with the European Commission, to allay their concerns, but are running the tightest of systems of due diligence to ensure we accept people of good standing only.

The investment generated by the citizenship and residency programmes will enable us to continue with our plan of improving the quality of life in Malta. Over €50 million has been spent on social housing. €1m was made available for the latest technologies for invasive interventions in cardiac surgery at Mater Dei. €10 million was used to enhance health centres, with a newly opened clinic in Gudja as well. €5 million was given to Puttinu Cares for the purchase of apartments in central London, close to Great Ormand Street Hospital, to make life easier for the families of those who seek medical care. And there have been many other projects besides... including the idea of introducing greener spaces in urban areas, with an investment of around €4 million.

We have even introduced a requirement for new applicants for these programmes to donate money to good causes. As part of the application process, they must give €10,000 to a registered sport, cultural, scientific, philanthropic, animal welfare, or artistic non-government organisation.

Some measures cost little, but mean a great deal to people. One of our latest reforms has been to give couples all possible options when it comes to choosing a surname after marriage. In addition to spouses being able to choose to keep their surname or take the other party’s surname, they can now add the other party’s surname to theirs and in whatever order they want without imposing on the other side to do the same. All that the couple have to agree on is the family surname they eventually want to pass on to their children.

It’s been 12 months like no other, but we reach this anniversary of the pandemic with Malta leading the rest of the European Union in vaccinating its people against COVID-19. Adding to the list of already implemented projects, are a number of other initiatives that will come along. Many Maltese have shown great dedication and fortitude in the past year and that gives us all hope for the future.

Alex Muscat is an MP and Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Communities