Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi this morning warned the Labour Opposition not to try and ruin the good reputation the Nationalist government had managed to build.
Referring to a talks Opposition leader Joseph Muscat is currently having in Libya, which the PL only made public yesterday, Dr Gonzi said that the PN did not hold its meetings in secret.
Speaking at a dialogue meeting in Qawra, Dr Gonzi said:
“We hold our meetings in public and keep the people informed about what is happening.”
This was the case in March last year when the government openly condemned the Gaddafi regime but it seemed Labour never learned, Dr Gonzi said.
The Prime Minister also spoke on employment and said that the Maltese government managed to create 20,000 new jobs in the past four years at a time when other countries suffered drops in their employment figures and in working conditions.
He said that while only 43 out of every hundred students used to continue with their education after secondary school, the number had now gone up to 73.
The Prime Minister said that 130 new factories had been set up in Malta in the past four years and most provided their workers with the necessary training.
He said that in the past four years the country had also completed its sewage treatment plants both in Malta and Gozo making Malta the only Mediterranean country in the world which treated all its drainage before this was dumped into the sea. These plans had provided employment for a multitude of Maltese workers during the construction phase and were still employing hundreds of people to operate them.
He noted that while less people were employed in the civil service, more people were in private sector employment.
There was also the highest number of women in employment in the past years because of policies which encouraged women to re-enter the employment market. Some 2,800 women were in fact benefitting from a €2,000 reduction in income tax each year.
The government had also launched schemes for businesses which could save them up to €25,000 in income tax.