Prime Minister Joseph Muscat returned to his attack on the practices of local banks this morning, saying the economy was growing 'despite' the banks.

Dr Muscat launched his attack last week when the government announced a scheme to help access to finance for business start-ups.

Speaking in a One Radio interview this morning, Dr Muscat said the banks blamed EU rules for the way they acted, but they were making the people’s and investors’ life difficult.

“I know of very few banks in Europe which do what Maltese banks do, they need to be more down to earth,” he said.

Earlier, Dr Muscat said the past week saw unprecedented ‘reformist energy,’ with the government piloting a major reform of the Lands Department, changes to parliamentary standing orders and a reform in the appointment of the members of the judiciary and discipline over judges and magistrates.

He said that the Lands Department was being brought out of prehistory. A situation where people needed to know people to get things done was being replaced by transparency, and decisions would be taken by technical people not politicians, who would only set direction.

The government's reformist energy could also be seen in the changes proposed to Parliament’s standing orders, Dr Muscat said. The aim was for the House to be autonomous and manage its own affairs.  

“This is a reformist government which is not afraid of change because it is not part of the elite but challenges the establishment,” the prime minister said.

Dr Muscat hit out at the leader of the Opposition for having failed to act against his MPs Chris Said and Toni Bezzina despite reports about them by the Auditor General and the courts. This undermined Dr Busuttil’s statements about good governance and accountability, he said.

The prime minister hailed Malta’s economic growth, noting that unemployment had been reduced to an unprecedented 3,500 and 20,000 jobs had been created in three years, thus bringing down poverty.

The government, he said, would address the problems of those who could not work but would also continue to tackle benefit fraud.

Referring to his comments about Malta Freeport last week, Dr Muscat said that instead of further expansion into fields which were outside the development zones in Birzebbuga, growth should now be in the development of freezone logistics centres. This was an area where Singapore was particularly effective in, and something which was being studied closely, he said.

An under-utilised site at Hal-Far had already been identified for this purpose and a public call for the management of such a logistics centre would be issued shortly.

 

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