No dockyard privatisation without serious investor proposals - Gonzi

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said today that while the government saw a viable future for a privatised dockyard, should there be no investor proposals which the government viewed as being satisfactory for the future of the dockyard, it would not deceive the country or the workers.

Referring to his talks last week with EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes, Dr Gonzi said this morning that he had stressed that the government’s aim in privatising Malta Shipyards was not to get rid of a problem – that could have been achieved through easier methods - but for Malta to have a dockyard which, with private investment, had a viable future.

“If we do not have such solutions, we will not continue the road of privatisation,” Dr Gonzi told a conference organised by Nationalist MEPs.

A call for expressions of interest in the privatisation of Malta Shipyards closes tomorrow, and Dr Gonzi said he did not know what proposals had been made so far.

The Prime Minister said the dockyard was one of three major challenges which the country faced – the others being the environment in its widest sense, and illegal immigration.

It was important, he said, that political and social forces were united in overcoming these hurdles because only in that way could Malta’s economic progress be consolidated and further strengthened in a difficult economic scenario. They should not allow their focus to be distracted by less important issues.

Dr Gonzi said that the challenge of the environment included alternative energy, and the government would soon be announcing its proposals on wind energy and difficult decisions would need to be taken here, in the same way as difficult decisions would continue to be needed on waste disposal facilities.

As for illegal immigration, Dr Gonzi said one dimension of this problem was exploitation of the migrants by a small number of employers, something which could not be tolerated.

“Furthermore, can we, as a small country under so much pressure, still fail to find more assistance form the EU?”

The EU and individual countries such as the US had helped Malta, he acknowledged. Many migrants had also been repatriated. The problem would otherwise be more serious.

“Still, the big challenge is that we as a people, including all the MEPs, need to continue to insist in all the EU institutions that we expect solidarity from our partners to help us face this crisis in a humane manner."

Dr Gonzi stressed the human element of this problem. Migrants, he said, were people, not numbers. People in distress would continue to be helped, and this moral argument actually strengthened Malta’s arguments around the EU table.

“Let us use our values as an argument which gives us credibility,” Dr Gonzi said.