The negotiations with a British consortium on the development of the White Rocks Complex should be completed within a few weeks, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this evening.

The Prime Minister, who was being asked questions about the budget on Radio RTK, said that this project had not been included with other infrastructural works in the budget because it was going to be self-financing.

Profits from the project would be invested in top-class sports facilities that would benefit athletes and encourage sports tourism.

The White Rocks Sports Village project also includes 300 apartments.

Dr Gonzi was also asked about Air Malta and he said that the restructuring process which had been going on for year now had to be accelerated.

The government was currently seeking the European Union’s approval to inject €100 million into Air Malta and the time had now come to start discussions with unions, workers and the opposition, on the decisions which had to be taken.

Commercial decisions, the Prime Minister said, had to be taken reasonably for the good of the company and the country.

Dr Gonzi said that ministers and parliamentary secretaries were to be instructed, during Monday's cabinet meeting, to increase efficiency and reduce expenses.

Describing the budget presented last Monday, Dr Gonzi said it was a strategic budget that was presented in the middle of a legislature and of an economic tempest.

It built on the good results achieved this year and addressed particular sectors of society, including pensioners, parents who sent their children to private school, those on the minimum wage and women who wanted to enter the employment world but were afraid they would lose benefits, for example.

Dr Gonzi said that his government would be implementing the electoral promise of a reduction in the income tax rate at the right moment.

“I have to be responsible and take the right decisions at the right time. Slowly, we will implement all our electoral promises,” he said.

The Prime Minister pointed out that the government had already started implementing this promise.

Women returning to work after having a baby did not pay income tax for the first year, for example.