Prime Minister Joseph Muscat this morning called for unity warning that the Opposition was resorting to provocation in a bid to create division and incite hatred as “it has run out of ideas... it has nothing to offer".
“We should respond by extending the hand of friendship,” Dr Muscat said.
The Prime Minister made this appeal during a political activity at the Paola Labour party club.
He did not refer to the controversy surrounding Economy Minister Chris Cardona, who filed for a €47,000 precautionary order to be issued against Daphne Caruana Galizia (for allegations that he visited a brothel while on official duty in Germany) but said the Opposition was only effective to flag problems. Ultimately people trusted the Labour government to solve them.
“Their only hope is that one of us would fall for their provocation,” Dr Muscat added.
In his address the Prime Minister lauded his government’s track record saying “nothing was impossible” for the Labour Party.
“We are punching above our weight when compared with other Mediterranean islands. This applies for the economy, job creation, investment, and career opportunities. Successes are being achieved even though we do not their natural resources," he remarked.
The Prime Minister noted that, in the past four years, Labour had created enough job opportunities not only for the Maltese, but also for 30,000 foreigners. At the same time the government had been balancing its books, reducing the deficit and reducing taxes.
The choice for the people would be between going back to mediocrity or to continue to leap ahead to eclipse the achievements made so far.
Health
Dr Muscat noted that certain issues which until a few years ago seemed impossible, such as providing students with free electronic tables, addressing the problem of out-of-stock medicines and reducing operation waiting lists, were being solved or implemented.
The government’s target was to attract medical tourism to Malta rather than have Maltese patients travelling for treatment.
Tourism and ITS site
The Prime Minister pointed out that until a few years ago, the idea was that inbound tourism could never exceed 1.5 million a year, but this year this had been exceeded as the number of foreign visitors reached two million.
This was in spite of the 50c tax per night per visitor.
The game changer, Dr Muscat said, would no longer be to boost arrivals, but to raise standards, attract wealthier visitors and in turn increase hotel rates.
Dr Muscat remarked that this would help improve wages in the sector, which would attract more Maltese people to this industry. This was why the government was building a new ITS campus at Smart City, he added.
He refuted criticism that the land had been sold for a cheap price, noting that at €60 million, this was the biggest price ever paid for a tract of government land.
The Prime Minister noted that each square metre of gross floor area at ITS was sold at €1,250 while under the PN government each square metre at Smart City was sold for 40c.