Difficulties experienced by West Ham United FC supporters to find accommodation in Malta for last week’s match against Birkirkara “was a good advert for Malta”, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.
Dr Muscat said the fact that the British football fans encountered such problems indicated that Malta was “full-up” and its tourism industry was thriving, Dr Muscat said.
“This is encouraging because, when tourists read it, they will see that a lot of people are going to Malta,” Dr Muscat said during an interview on Labour’s One Radio.
There were other capacity problems Malta was facing, such as lack of space for cruise liners wanting to stop over. Also, there was lack of space for private jets at the airport, with pilots having to drop off dignitaries for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting later this year and then park their aircraft in Sicily, Dr Muscat said.
The government was showing the world what Malta stood for, he added. The individual investment programme had been crucial in raising the country’s profile. And the profile would rise even more in autumn when Malta hosted the EU-African summit, followed then by CHOGM and also a meeting of the board of governors of the European Central Bank.
Referring to last week’s widespread power cuts, Dr Muscat blamed the previous administration for failing to invest in the distribution system. This, he said, was being rectified.
He saw the silver lining there too, saying the record demand for electricity on Tuesday was, among others, due to high temperatures as well as cheaper power tariffs.
The government was working on a programme to strengthen the network while, at the same time, continuing its programme to convert power generation from heavy fuel oil to gas. Dr Muscat briefly referred to the Gasol’s exit from the new power station consortium, saying the project “will occur as planned”.
During his interview, the Prime Minister deplored criticism by the Nationalist Party on Bank of Valletta, a publicly-listed company, and its chairman, John Cassar White, who, he said, was highly respected and had even been appointed by the previous administration as chairman of Malta Shipyards. Such criticism, he said, was undermining the long-standing consensus that existed in financial services.
Dr Muscat also referred to the Opposition’s criticism of self-accreditation by the Malta College for Arts, Science and Technology for Masters degrees.
He said the PN attacks were “shocking”. The government, he added, did not distinguish between educational institutions but gave them, and their students, equal importance and support.