Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning that a number of companies have pledged "in writing" to absorb all the 110 employees being made redundant by Arrow Pharm.

He was addressing members of the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry at a dialogue session in Valletta.

Dr Muscat started his introductory speech by referring to the impending redundancies at the Hal Far pharmaceutical plant, which last week said it was downsizing its manufacturing plant by almost half.

Dr Muscat thanked the Chamber because over a matter of three days a number of member companies had pledged in writing to take on the workers if and when they are made redundant.

The media was allowed for the introductory speeches as the dialogue session continued behind closed doors.

In a short speech Chamber president David Curmi said he was glad the citizenship controversy was over but highlighted issues of concern.

Mr Curmi said the organisation was not happy with the way the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development was being treated by the government.

"Certain priority issues have not featured on the agenda and we feel the council is losing its autonomy because of lack of resources, suffice to say it meets at the ministry and not on neutral ground," he said.

But the Chamber's biggest concern was the lack of EU regional funds as a result of Malta losing its Objective One Status. Mr Curmi said this could impact competitiveness and create problems in the manufacturing sector since the level of aid would drop.

He expressed concern at recent statistics on industrial production and noted this followed a worrying trend.

Mr Curmi said electricity prices were very high and rendered industry uncompetitive. He called for utility bill reductions for the 21 top energy consumers to come into effect before 2015.

Addressing the last point Dr Muscat said the government had to be careful not to destabilise its fiscal programme but pledged to hold discussions in a bid to find a solution.

According to government's energy plan, electricity prices are to drop by an average of 25 per cent for households in March this year and by the same amount for businesses next year.