10
e Business OBSERVER
| October 8, 2015
INTERVIEW
PROFESSOR JOSEPH FALZON, THE DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF ECONOMICS, MANAGEMENT AND ACCOUNTING
How to tame a dragon Vanessa Macdonald In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, a dragon stands guard at the mouth of a cave, preventing the crusaders from getting on with their journey. Perhaps that is the sort of dragon professor Joseph Falzon, the dean of the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accounting, had in mind when he warned about the challenges facing the economy. Prof. Falzon is also a consultant to the chairman of the Malta Council for Social and Economic Development, John Bencini, and was recently given half an hour in which to present to the Finance Minister a summary of the main points made by the MCESD members in their pre-Budget wish list. At 4am on the day before the presentation, he was scratching his head, surrounded by a mound of reports which between them raised 194 proposals, with a further 246 suggestions.
He managed to cover them in four main categories (see adjacent boxes) and three less pressing ones – which he called ‘dragons’, an immediate hit with newspaper headlines. The less pressing issues are not to be downplayed, he warned. They may not be as urgent but they are just as important – and are perhaps even more complex to resolve. Traffic and parking problems were, for example, repeatedly mentioned as these are causing a lot of wasted man hours. A holistic plan is also needed to make the healthcare system sustainable in the long term. “Tony Zahra of the MHRA had once wryly joked that perhaps the finance minister should pass a law saying that everyone should die on their 75th birthday… But his point was clear: we have to appreciate the cost of each added year in life expectancy,” he said. Prof. Falzon said that several of the social partners were also frustrated with the lack of progress on pensions, saying that
“We need a holistic plan for each sector and we need a coordinated vision to make sure they all work seamlessly together”
the best place to start would be with the third pillar pensions, introduced in last year’s Budget. “There has been talk of second pillar pensions with auto-enrolment and optouts. That would basically make it a sort of third pillar. “And the Opposition and UĦM are pushing for second pillar pensions. But there is still no agreement between the social partners on the second pillar and employers still do not feel that it is the right time to introduce it. “We certainly need to do something and we should start with the third pillar. There have been a number of proposals made by potential providers and a lot of groundwork done. However, it was felt by the social partners that the government’s fiscal incentives were clearly not sufficient. We also need an educational public campaign,” he said. Prof. Falzon also believes that more needs to be done to stem the flow of jobs from manufacturing and industry. “Value added per worker has improved – thanks