City Gate back on the agenda

City Gate is once again on the agenda and is one of the projects the Prime Minister wants to discuss with Labour leader Joseph Muscat next week.

Addressing a dialogue meeting at Mġarr, Dr Gonzi said he had requested a meeting with the leader of the opposition so that they could work together and discuss matters which needed discussing, such as the nomination of a Data Protection Commissioner and important projects for the country on which national consensus was desired.

Dr Gonzi noted that there not been one project carried out in the past years on which there had been no controversy.

Major capital projects, the Prime Minister said, were to be announced in the coming days and these required national support because they were aimed at improving the country’s infrastructure and the main entrance to the country’s capital city.

“My appeal to Dr Muscat is for us to see if we can together draw up a route which can benefit the country,” Dr Gonzi said.

The Prime Minister said that at a time when the world was facing financial problem, the private sector was still investing in Malta, with four major projects being launched this week.

These were an extension of the De La Rue factory, which was venturing into the production of biometric passports, a block of exclusive shops in Paceville, the Duke Complex in Victoria and an extension to the Ħal Mann showroom.

Malta, he said, was capable of finding the niches it could be successful in and the budget was government’s economic plan to continue with the necessary reforms.

Dr Gonzi noted that today was the 22nd anniversary of the tal-Barrani incidents when disorder was caused by the forces of law and order in a bid to stop the Nationalist Party from expressing its political ideas.

The country, he said, was now changed and the Nationalist Party had also changed Labour. But although Labour was no longer a violent party, it remained negative when it came to substance.

What was Labour’s political position on the issues being faced? What were its economic solutions? What did it believe would make Malta a more competitive country?

The government believed that Malta can become among the best countries in the world by 2015. Did Labour agree? Did it agree that the financial services sector should be central in Malta and that this could be further spread. Did it agree that young people should be encouraged to choose this as a career? The same, Dr Gonzi said, could be said for IT, education, health, tourism and value added manufacture.