[attach id=313462 size="medium"]Investment Minister Chris Cardona. Photo: Jason Borg[/attach]
Investment Minister Chris Cardona told Parliament that Malta Enterprise had approved 133 new projects during the first 10 months of a Labour government.
He said this contrasted sharply with the seven given the go-ahead during the last year of the Nationalist administration.
Dr Cardona was speaking during the Budget Implementation Bill debate. He said that 35 of these projects were direct foreign investment.
The excellent relationship with the business sector was the result of hard work on the government side which had heeded advice by private investors.
He referred to the workers made redundant at Arrow Pharm, saying that the well-known manufacturing companies that had committed themselves in writing to take them felt they were insulted by the Leader of the Opposition, who claimed that the jobs offered were of a precarious nature.
He added that Arrow Pharm had taken the decision to downsize its factory in Malta under a Nationalist administration which had burdened such enterprises with harsh utility bills, among other things.
Dr Cardona said that the government’s economic strategy was two-pronged – that of increasing investment through the opening of new factories or extension of others while also attracting new foreign investment through projects calling for international expression of interest and foreign investment programmes. Such programmes included an international call for expression of interest in developing the White Rocks complex which had failed under the Nationalist administration.
The government aimed at maximising Malta’s economic potential while increasing quality job opportunities.
Statistics showed that foreign direct foreign investment for the first half of 2013 showed a marginal increase in revenue when it had decreased by €130 million during the same period in 2012.
An increase of €39 million direct foreign investment in manufacture had been registered in June 2013 while revenue from such investments had decreased by €83 million during the same period in 2012.
The private sector was also the prime mover in new job opportunities with 3,500 new vacancies created during the first six months of 2013 compared with an increase of 795 during the same period a year before.
Out of these only 630 full-time jobs in the public sector were registered, when in January 2013 the Nationalist administration had employed 559 people on a full-time basis with the government.
Concluding, Dr Cardona said that the government would continue to consider the private sector as a catalyst in the economy which had shown positive signs beyond expectation, as recorded by Standard & Poor’s.