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CONFIDENTIAL
Record of a meeting held with the Minister of State, FCO, The Rt Hon Mr Francis Maude in the office of the Chief Minister on 25th January 1990 at 3.00pm.
Present:
Chief Minister
The Hon J E Pilcher
The Hon J L Baldachino
The Hon M A Feetham
The Hon J C Perez
The Hon Ms M I Montegriffo
The Hon R Mor
The Hon J L Moss
Administrative Secretary SEO (A)
The Gibraltar Economy
1.
2.
a
economy
The Rt Hon Mr F Maude
Mr D Ratford Mr M Kirk
Ms Ewan
HE The Governor Deputy Governor
He
a
The Chief Minister opened the meeting by saying that he wished to take the opportunity to outline the background to the current economic situation. explained that the
had experienced transformation with a shift of resources from the public to the private sector. With the help of some bar charts, he illustrated the shift in employment from the public to the private sector and showed how it was largely direct consequence to cutbacks by the Ministry of Defence. These reductions in the Ministry
the Ministry of Defence had largely been absorbed by the Gibraltar Government in the past. Since August 1988, the Government had frozen recruitment. This had already resulted in a significant fall in the number of industrial employees. The Chief Minister also referred to the success of the Government's Youth Training Scheme. There were problems however in finding suitable employment opportunities for Moroccan workers and this was a cause for concern, moreso as the Moroccan Community had recently become increasingly vociferous.
Mr Maude asked whether the Moroccan workers were unhappy with their existing status. The Chief Minister replied that many Moroccan workers were now into their fifties and those made redundant usually found that they had no marketable skills, making it difficult for them to find alternative employment in Gibraltar. There were no options for them in Morocco. As a consequence of this, the Moroccan workforce was now asking for the
residence in permanent
The
nor
Her
Gibraltar.
right of Chief Minister explained that this was neither possible acceptable. He felt that there was a need for Majesty's Government to
matter pursue the
with the Moroccan Government. The Moroccan workforce could not be fully integrated in Gibraltar given the demands on housing and social services. There had fortunately been no history of racial conflict in Gibraltar, but
CONFIDENTIAL