Daniel Ghio
Policy areas:
I consider myself a working-class member of society and truly believe that I’ve been very lucky to grow up in Gibraltar. I spent my early childhood living in Laguna Estate and at age 9, my parents moved to Harbour Views. Because of this I also consider myself very in-tune with “the person on the street” and the social issues that trouble our community.
I started dabbing my feet in politics by commenting, blogging, featuring on GBC programmes such as Viewpoint and City Pulse, speaking about local current affairs, local politics and the social issues we face as a community, topics ranging from housing, public debt, to the tribal two-party political system, to education and culture.
My professional background has given me a wide variety of skills encompassing, technology, problem-solving and communication. Growing up I was always the “geeky techie” and it was only natural to me that I ended up starting my career in the IT sector working for a local gaming company. I was hired as an engineer in a newly established data centre company that had setup inside the Rock itself, inside the old MOD command centre. I truly believe that for a community our size we can be doing so much more to embrace the digital world thereby using less paper and fewer visits to Government counters, if we start embracing and re-defining how eGov functions. This will save civil servants and members of our community, enormous amounts of time and concentrate on more important matters. We should ensure there’s a system where individuals and businesses alike, will be able to perform all their administration functions from within a user-friendly website.
Following several years working as an engineer, I transitioned into an “Account Manager” role which afforded me the opportunity to forge direct relationships with existing and prospective technology customers. This role allowed me to travel and engage internationally to sell Gibraltar and our product set. This has allowed me to focus extensively on the image and reputation of Gibraltar as a country within the international arena and it cemented a passion in me to do more for our nation.
On a personal note, I have been actively involved in the local music scene from a very young age, both as a performer and a follower, something which continues to be a life passion of mine. Gibraltar has exceptional talent and I truly believe we need to do far more to export and nurture our talent both at home and via international links, by giving artists and bands the platform and opportunity that they deserve, just like other forms of local culture and art. There is a lot more we can do as a community to promote new types of art and culture and a Together Gibraltar Government will ensure equal opportunities are offered that will inspire and incentivise the community to create, showcase and promote local talent. Culture is what we as Gibraltarians put into many forms of art, be it music, photography, writing, dance or painting. It is the expression of our collective past, present and future.