SPEECH BY THE HON. CENSU GALEA, MINISTER FOR TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS, DURING THE SEMINAR "TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS ASSESSMENT"

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As a small island state, Malta is highly dependent on efficient transportation links for the country’s social and economic development. Over the last 15 years or so, increases in the demand for the international transportation of goods and passengers has brought about the need to strengthen our external sea and air transport connections and facilities, and to develop our internal road, sea and air links.

Since the 1980s, Malta’s external connections have been significantly improved with the development of several new shipping links to Europe and North Africa and, in the air transport sector, by the expansion of air services and flight destinations. In turn, our transport infrastructure has been upgraded to meet the requirements of the higher volumes of international traffic. For instance, the re-siting and reconstruction of the country’s airport and the new construction of a Freeport container seaport in the south of the island have facilitated a reasonably sustainable growth in both freight and passenger transport.

Internal transport connections within Malta also play an important role in international transport chains. The growth in road traffic and increased demand for inter-island transport between Malta and Gozo by sea and air have also brought about the need for the development of our road, ferry and helicopter service infrastructure, in order to meet today’s mobility requirements.

We are now well into the new millennium and, like many other countries, we the policy makers, planners and operators, must continue to plan the future development of our transport system in a more pro-active manner. It is essential for us to lay the foundations for a long-term transport policy – a policy which examines our transport needs in a holistic manner, by integrating the development of air, sea and land transport networks at both national and European level. Over the coming years, we shall need to develop our transport systems in such a way as to enable sustainable mobility whilst not compromising safety or endangering the protection of our environment.

I am pleased to inform you that, last year, the European Commission agreed to allow the Maltese Government to appoint an independent team of transport experts, funded under the Malta-EU 4th Financial Protocol, to make an assessment of Malta’s transport infrastructure needs for the next 15 years.

I am delighted to welcome here today three of the seven European experts who shall be carrying out the Transport Infrastructure Needs Assessment study for Malta over the next six months. Their expertise in this field is unparalleled as they have overseen similar studies in the Central Eastern European Accession countries and Cyprus. It is hoped that, by the end of the year, the findings and recommendations of the study shall be incorporated into a Decision of the European Parliament and Council on the future Development of a Trans-European Network and that some of the infrastructure projects put forward will be eligible for Community funding upon accession.

I should like to conclude by thanking the participants and organisers of today’s workshop, which I am sure, we shall all find both interesting and informative. I hope that, as key stakeholders in the policy making, planning and operation of transport services, this initial workshop shall serve to make us all increasingly aware of how our transport network operates today and how, in the future, our transport system can be developed to achieve greater integration and inter-operability with Trans-European Transport Networks which are currently being developed in the rest of Europe.

Thank you.