Updated 3pm - Added government statement

The government has published a Memorandum of Understanding it signed with a private investment consortium to develop the Marsa horse racing track. 

It release the MOU after the Nationalist Party issued a statement this morning in which it called for the agreement to be published in its entirety and expressed scepticism about the outlined deal. 

The government and consortium signed an MOU to develop the Marsa track earlier this year. The two parties have given themselves six months to thrash out a deal.

"In recent years, Joseph Muscat has doled public land to whoever he wished," the PN said. "The Marsa horse racing track should be handed to investors with an interest in improving the lot of horse racing fans, not property speculators."

The PN was reacting to news published in the Malta Independent on Sunday that the consortium's key investor is a group director at Henley & Partners, the legal firm granted a concession to design and implement Malta's cash-for-passports scheme. 

It said that the company granted the Marsa horse racing track contract had been established on the very same day it penned the deal, raising doubts as to its expertise in the horse racing sector. 

'This is about horse racing, not property' 

As well as publishing the MOU (see pdf below), the Sports parliamentary secretariat expressed its disapproval for the way the PN had gone about expressing its doubts about the deal. 

"This is an opportunity for local horse racing enthusiasts to have adequate competition and facilities here and not be forced to go abroad to compete in events of a certain standard, which will instead be brought here," the secretariat said. 

It denied the Opposition's suggestions that the deal was in reality about property speculation, saying that the deal tied investors to ensuring all development was related to the sport.