Trade Fair opened at Ta'Qali

The rent reform white paper will be published tomorrow, and the government will shortly also announce its first decisions on new projects which will be financed from EU funds, the Prime Minister said this evening.

Speaking at the opening of the trade fair at Ta’ Qali, Dr Gonzi said the government could not remain motionless in the face of decisions which had to be taken. Nor could it be superficial in its actions. Decisions had to be clear cut without any illusion of trying to please everybody.

He said that the government had launched the discussion on reform of local government and had also launched the reform at MEPA. It had also decided to privatise the dockyard.

He said that despite an increasingly difficult international economic climate, the economy grew by 3.7 percent last year.

The sharp increases in oil and food prices abroad, however, appeared to be structural and prices were not expected to revert to what they were a few months ago.Malta, therefore, needed to be careful to safeguard what it had managed to achieve

It needed to ensure that investment was made in the productive sectors, that costs continued to be reduced and that competitiveness was maintained through higher productivity.

Dr Gonzi noted that this was a milestone edition of the Malta trade fair, since it was the first to be held at Ta’ Qali. He said the fair should not be based solely on imports, and the organisers should ensure that the fair would also be a show window of the products and services which Malta exported.