Over the past three year, the government worked to strengthen the country’s finances to afford to continue giving the people the best services, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said.

Closing a four-day party seminar for activists to reflect on the past and plan for the future, the Prime Minister said the government was using the people’s taxes were being to ensure that no Maltese fell behind.

The sacrifices the Maltese were asked to make over the past three years had not been in vain but permitted the government to intervene to save the essentials, including health and education services.

He noted that 50 of 7,700 women who had received a breast scan had cancer identified at an early stage and this could have saved their life.

The country’s Oncology Centre, would also be one of the best in the region.

Some 5,000 jobs were saved and more than 7,000 new ones were created, placing Malta in the fourth place among EU countries in job creation and unemployment reduction.

The Prime Minister said that this legislature had faced tough times because of the international situation - initially with the financial crisis and now with the unrest in the Arab world.

The Nationalist government, Dr Gonzi said, should continue working towards taking decisions which would enable the country to face challenges enabling it to sustain initiatives which would benefit the people.