US work at the shipyards

US companies sent 15 vessels for repair at Malta Shipyards in the past two years but no American warships were serviced at the 'yard, Government Investments Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday.

Replying to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Leo Brincat, the minister said that a cruise ship belonging to an American company was expected at the shipyard next month.

Replying to supplementary questions by Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca (MLP), the minister said the order book at the shipyard looked positive for the next few months, but productivity remained a major concern. The shipyard had fallen back on its financial targets, and, he warned, government subsidies would not be possible beyond 2008, whatever anyone promised. It was unacceptable, he said, that while turnover increased, losses were not reduced.

The country had already spent Lm400 million on the shipyards and this could not continue.

Ms Coleiro Preca said the country had also benefited, while the shipyards having attracted foreign currency, served as the cradle for many skills and created jobs in ancillary industries.

Dr Gatt said that while this was acknowledged, Lm400 million was too big a price and everyone at the dockyard needed to realise that one could not act like nothing was happening as losses were made.

Asked why the government was not implementing the Appledore report, commissioned by the 1996 Labour government, Dr Gatt said the conclusion of that report was that if the shipyard did not become commercially viable, it should be closed down.

If that was what the Labour MP was recommending, he would act on it.