A large amount of the €1.1 billion in EU funds for Malta would be invested in ensuring that young people got the best education, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said yesterday.

Should the Nationalist Party be trusted to lead the country again, he said, it would work to broaden courses at the University and at the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology.

A PN government would also ensure that stipends increased every year in line with cost of living, Dr Gonzi said during the televised programme Qalb Il-Famija that was aired from the Grand Hotel in Gozo.

Earlier, Dr Gonzi visited Merit, a precision tools factory, at the Xewkija industrial estate.

He described the factory as one of the most important in Gozo manufacturing, adding that the PN Government was committed to ensuring that Gozitan youngsters were provided with training and education.

Over the past five years, the Employment and Training Corporation had concluded 880 job placements in Gozo and 264 employers recruited 617 workers through the EU-funded Employment Aid Programme, which covered half the salary for a year.

Ten per cent of the Cohesion Funds forming part of the €1.1 billion that Malta secured for itself from the EU’s 2014-2020 budget would be allocated to Gozo, as had been done with the previous seven-year EU budget, Dr Gonzi said.

Apart from this, 20 per cent of funds obtained for the rural and education sectors would also be for Gozo, he said. Turning to the PN electoral programme, Dr Gonzi said the Government would turn the Xewkija industrial estate into a business park.

New small businesses that employed more than two people would receive up to €200,000 in tax exemptions over three years, Gozitan business would pay 90 per cent less than their Maltese counterparts on licence fees and a business centre in Gozo would facilitate the process of setting up new businesses and expanding existing ones, he said.