'Gozo must be an island region'

The Labour Party believed Gozo should be the country's economic motor and leader Joseph Muscat said he would continue working for it to be considered an island region.

Addressing a business breakfast as part of Labour's activities in the run-up to the June 6 European Parliament election, Dr Muscat said the party would continue analysing Gozo's socio-economic situation so that it did not only attract employment for Gozitans but also for Maltese.

The government, he said, had been expected to present a report on Gozo prior to the EU's 2006 budget and another before that of 2012. However, the first report was never done because the government failed to keep its promise.

Labour, he said, cared about Gozo's economic and industrial development and was continuously updating its regional plan for the island's development, which the party drew up when in government in 1996 and which was re-launched in May 2006.

He said Gozo was missing out on foreign direct investment and this was resulting in unemployment and a lower gross domestic product.

Dr Muscat said that, according to a series of parliamentary questions Labour made, out of the 286 Gozitan students who graduated last November, 136 were still without a job.

The party agreed with the proposal to set up a Gozo Tourism Authority that would take care of the island's tourism requirements. He reiterated that once in government, Labour would subsidise the helicopter service between Malta and Gozo in the form of a public service contract so that the scheme would be in line with EU rules.

With regard to investment, Dr Muscat said that while Malta attracted €4 billion in foreign investment over the past eight years Gozo had only attracted €6.5 million in the same period.