The government wants to look into policies and guidelines regarding outside development zones in a bid to stimulate agritourism, Michael Farrugia, the Parliamentary Secretary for Planning said this morning.

He was speaking at Mepa during the launch of Semma Lehnek, a public consultation process which should lead to Mepa’s reform and simplification.

The process, between Monday and May 27, is part of the government’s plan to divide Mepa into two and the public is being invited to give its opinion on how procedures could be further simplified.

Dr Farrugia said the government was committed to reduce bureaucracy by 25 per cent as promised in its electoral manifesto.

It wanted to reduce the duplication of requests for information and to see that there was no unnecessary overlapping of procedures.

The authority would also form a unit to evaluate complaints.

The public should e-mail their thoughts and ideas to riformamepa.opm@gov.mt .