The Minister for Gozo Anton Refalo said that he believes that the future of Gozo is about “helping our youths believe in their island.”
While delivering his speech during the recent launch of Research Study on Young Entrepreneurs, Minister Refalo stated that there is “a level of trust that needs to be restored, to help the young generation make the leap, to create opportunity within a supportive administrative and legislative framework, to make aspirations and ideas viable in the labour market.”
“Challenges abound and the most durable are often cultural rather than market based, as notions of island limitations have rooted themselves across generations, perhaps limiting Gozo to identify, creating and in taking up opportunities,” Dr Refalo said.
He added that, “business communities are more than ever interconnected through the web and can exploit available knowledge to do business more efficiently, to share ideas and to innovate as market demands change.”
Anton Refalo said that “Gozo should be an island of opportunities and there are fine examples of business initiatives who have thrived because our entrepreneurs have the vision, the aspiration and the resilience to succeed.”
“The Young Business Entrepreneurs’ initiative to focus on young people’s outlook on participation in the labour market and their insights into entrepreneurship is commendable and has received the Ministry for Gozo’s full support,” he said.
The Minister stated that “the results confirm the developments of the past decade and beyond – that young Gozitans employed in Malta would consider working in Gozo if the opportunity arises and that their decision to live in Malta is opportunity-related. Indeed, 66% of Gozitan active labour market participants who are not self employed, list Gozo as their preferred base if they were to open up a business.”
“The Government’s plan to have Barts, a faculty within Queen Mary University of London, opening a medical school in Gozo, the development of a new acutegeneral hospital and a geriatrics hospital in Gozo, which should accompany the investment by Barts medical school. This together with the plans by RS2 software company to have a base in Gozo, give new impetus to the island and to future opportunities for young people.”
“Our objective is to restore the trust that our island can truly offer a future to our young ones and to help them translate their vision into successful business initiatives,” concluded Minister Anton Refalo.
Photograph: MGOZ/George Scerri