Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told members of the Malta Developers Association that he continued to question certain bureaucratic procedures and whether they offered solutions to real problems.

The Prime Minister told the more than 150 members of the MDA that this was one of the best years in this sector.

“The merit is yours. Your association gave us a number of proposals which we accepted.”

One such proposal was the elimination of stamp duty for first time buyers. Dr Muscat committed himself to come up with other sustainable incentives to bring development of quality.

“We took courageous decisions in the past year but now there is clarity,” Dr Muscat said referring to the floor area ratio policy.

MDA president Sandro Chetcuti said that since being set up four years ago, the MDA wasmaking a difference.

He stressed that the construction sector always responded to the needs of the country, be it social housing, tourism or financial services. “Today we are moving from quantity to quality," he said.

He complained about excessive bureaucracy and that following assurances in discussions on certain policy directions, the opposite occurred.