The government will next week be issuing a new call for expressions of interest in land reclamation, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this afternoon.

Speaking during a meeting with the Malta Employers Association, the Prime Minister said that in its first few weeks, his government had shown it was willing to work with the private sector.

An unprecedented amount of calls for expressions of interest were issued and massive interest had been expressed in the redevelopment of the former shipbuilding site.

The government, he said, was willing to work with the private sector through public private partnerships not only on roundabouts and old people’s homes but also in other sectors.

The Prime Minister was meeting the MEA who wanted to present him with position paper on precarious employment.

Dr Muscat said that while he agreed with employers that there was a need for a proper definition of what precarious work actually meant, this actually boiled down to a handful of irresponsible employers who were giving a bad name to the rest.

The government, he noted, issued guidelines on public contracts earlier this week.

MEA president Arthur Muscat said the issue of precarious employment was more of a polemic rather than a problem.

The General Worker’ Union has claimed that there are 20,000 people who have a precarious job.