Labour calls latest tourism initiative farcical

One of the projects announced by Tourism Minister Francis Zammit Dimech last week as part of the government's latest initiative for Bugibba and surrounding areas had actually been promised in 2001 but never delivered, Labour tourism spokesman Evarist Bartolo said yesterday.

Dr Zammit Dimech announced on Friday (a day before Labour's own press conference on the subject) that the government wants to obtain some €7.8 million from the European Union through structural funds available to Malta, for a project aimed at Bugibba and its environs. The project would include a scenic promenade along St Paul's Bay, a new sandy beach in Qawra, a diving institute, a landscaped garden, a Greek theatre and information facilities, all to be finished by summer 2009.

Describing Dr Zammit Dimech's press conference as farcical, however, Mr Bartolo pointed out that the diving facilities which the minister pledged to develop had actually been promised back in 2001. The project had even been given the go-ahead by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority but the permit had now expired without the project having materialised.

Speaking at a Labour activity, Mr Bartolo said that the case was an example of the minister's incompetence and the government's plan nothing but a hastily drawn up set of promises aimed solely at pre-empting Labour's own plan for the area.

The case was symptomatic of the government's approach as a whole. Turning to the golf course saga, he said that after thousands of liri spent, much discussion and research, the government still did not have a solution. "This despite the fact that there is an easy and relatively inexpensive first step which could have been taken years ago and that is the extension of the course in Marsa. With Lm500,000, that course could be extended, becoming an attraction," he said.

When there was a mild improvement in tourism figures, he said, the government immediately went into celebratory mode. But the island could not be satisfied with these small increases, he insisted, reiterating Labour's announced goal to attract 1.6 million tourists per year.

Labour Leader Alfred Sant, who also addressed the event, took the cue from Mr Bartolo, extending the argument to the government as a whole. Beneath the rosy rhetoric, he said, there was evidence of incompetence and inefficiency everywhere. In this vein, he mentioned a recently reported case in which the Housing Authority paid for a block of apartments which had now been found to be defective, with the result that parts of it would probably have to be pulled down.

Similarly, he attacked the government's recently announced legislation to protect whistleblowers, saying that the minister heading it, Louis Galea, had a track record of lack of transparency and inefficiency throughout his political career.

With the Vittoriosa marina in the background, the project which toppled the Labour government in 1998, Dr Sant reminded that the idea of having a marina in the area had been Labour's. Labour would now embark upon a consultation process in respect of the Grand Harbour area with stakeholders as it did with the Bugibba area, in a bid to develop an integrated tourism plan for the area.