A new St George’s Bay Regeneration Corporation will be set up to facilitate at least three major projects to avoid it becoming a “permanent construction site”, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today.

The corporation will liaise between the major projects, including the construction of a six-star hotel. Dr Muscat said this was important to avoid chaos should all construction forge ahead without a focal point.

“Can you imagine the traffic situation, not to mention the general mess? We cannot have a major tourist area disrupted that much,” he said.

The corporation would help manage the use of barges to remove building debris from the construction sites and also stagger works.

Dr Muscat, who was addressing a press conference ahead of Monday’s Budget, said the government would be focusing on bringing the island’s infrastructure up to EU standards.

“We cannot expect to have around two million tourists visit the island next year, most of whom would visit the same areas, and not improve our infrastructural management,” Dr Muscat said.

He said the same infrastructural management was currently being used for tourist hotspots like the rest of the island. This meant that quiet villages were being cleaned at the same rate as busy urban areas.