A Norwegian car shipping company, the biggest in the world, intends to bring its headquarters here after it registered five companies in Malta and is currently in the process of registering all its 140 vessels under the Maltese flag, Austin Gatt said yesterday.

Speaking in Gozo, the minister said another company, a Canadian manufacturer of oil exploration valves with several operations in Europe wanted to set up in an EU country and would be building a logistic base in Malta.

He said that the outline development permit for the Smart City project and the permit for the building of the project’s first phase were to be issued next week. This project would employ 10,000 people.

Prime Minsiter Lawrence Gonzi spoke on financial requests currently being made by lecturers saying that although the government wanted to improve lecturers’ conditions, there was a limit. The government’s primary responsibility, he said, was towards saving the careers of young men and women.

On the migration and asylum pact recently agreed upon by the 27 justice ministers in the EU, Dr Gonzi said this was a good pact which would help Malta address the problem.

It would help the country repatriate immigrants who did not have a right to be here, it would financially assist Malta and other countries dealing with the problem and it provided for voluntary initiatives on burden sharing.

The new Opposition leader, he said, was the only one in Europe who argued that the pact should not be signed unless burden sharing was made obligatory.

“Does the opposition leader want some other country to make Malta take some of its immigrants? What kind of approach and political maturity is this?”

Dr Gonzi said that a serious and mature political dialogue was needed at this point for decisions to be taken in the interest of all.

“Let’s put partisan politics aside and look at the big picture,” he invited.