The PN yesterday pledged to continue working “tirelessly” to create 25,000 jobs over the next five years.
The country’s success is down to good decisions taken by the Government
PN president Paula Mifsud Bonnici said the PN Government created 20,000 jobs in the past five years and saved another 5,000 during the financial crisis through targeted intervention.
She was speaking at the PN headquarters where the party unveiled its latest billboard, which commits the party to working for jobs every day.
Also speaking at the press conference, PN candidate and former trade unionist Gejtu Vella said the country’s success was down to good decisions taken by the Government at a time when the world faced the biggest depression since the 1930s.
While other unions were protesting around the world because of a lack of jobs, the unions in Malta complained about energy prices, he said, when asked about his objection to the increase in utility tariffs earlier this legislature.
Meanwhile, Social Policy Minister Chris Said pledged to keep working “tirelessly” over the next five years to create 25,000 new jobs and defend the 153,000 current jobs. He said the Labour government lost 4,000 jobs in the 22 months between 1996 and 1998.
The PN’s electoral programme, which would be approved on Friday, would include a number of initiatives to keep boosting job creation in Malta and Gozo.
Among other things, a PN government would deliver the reduction of income tax to 25 per cent for those earning less than €60,000, as promised in the Budget, while giving more tax credits to businesses.
It would complete the bio-campus in San Ġwann to create jobs in science and research. It would also continue to invest in new areas like financial services and aircraft maintenance, as well as traditional sectors like tourism.
A PN government would also continue to invest in Gozo by giving financial incentives to build five-star hotels or upgrade three- and four-star hotels.
Financial incentives would also be made available for holiday farmhouses. There would also be a business centre set up in Rabat to facilitate investment.
Dr Said pointed out that Labour visited Gozo twice during this campaign but did not make any proposals.
Asked about the Enemalta corruption scandal, Dr Said, who is also Justice Minister, said the PN Government always reported allegations of corruption to the authorities and action was always taken “regardless of the person involved”.
“But there’s a difference between a small suspicion and an allegation,” he said, when asked why ex-oil purchasing official Frank Sammut was not reported to the police in 2004 when he was let go.
Dr Said refused to get into the case of Enemalta and had no intention of doing so but was sure that investigations would be carried out, unlike what took place under a Labour government in the 1980s when institutionalised corruption was well-known but ignored by the authorities.
He said a PN government would continue to work to introduce the Whistleblower’s Act.