‘It’s all about jobs’ – Gonzi

The 9 March election boils down to one thing, according to PN leader Lawrence Gonzi, the creation of 25,000 new jobs in different sectors.

This could be achieved by encouraging more women to enter the labour market by introducing family friendly incentives and encourage businesses to invest and create jobs by introducing further tax credits and other measures.

"In a nutshell, the PN electoral programme could be described by one word, jobs. It's all about jobs. This cannot be achieved by simply saying nice words or wishful thinking," Gonzi said.

Pointing out that the country could not put all its eggs in the same basket, the Prime Minister said that Malta needs to strengthen all economic sectors, including tourism, services and manufacturing.

While saying that the financial services sector is a vital cog in Malta's economy, Gonzi stressed that no country could succeed without having a thriving value added manufacturing sector .

Addressing representatives of civil society during a business breakfast in St Julian's, Gonzi said that the Nationalist Party was not holding its cards close to its chest but it was openly putting forward its electoral programme for all to see and judge.

"We do not do that because jobs are at stake. At this moment we cannot take any risks with the country's future," Gonzi said.

Without mentioning the Opposition by name, Gonzi said that Labour was attempting to obscure the country's achievements in the last five years, adding "let us not forget the lessons learnt in the last five years. In these last five years, we witnessed countries which took bad decisions, put their economy at risk and suffered dire consequences."

Warning that if the country's finances are not secured, Gonzi said health, education, employment and the environment would collapse in the same manner as it did in other countries.

"We should be petrified if anyone in this country does not aim at creating at least 25,000 new jobs in the next five years," he said.

On energy he said that the country should steer away from building a new power plant which could end up in disaster as experienced by Cyprus where an explosion at a power plant on the Mediterranean island dragged the country's economy to its lowest ebb.

The solution lies in the introduction of smart meters and the energy interconnector linking Malta to Sicily and the European energy grid. Gonzi said the policy to introduce smart energy meters in all households, factories and commercial establishments by the end of the year and the completion of the interconnector by March 2014 would translate into cheaper energy bills for hotels, factories and industry by next year.

"These two factors would allow Malta to purchase energy at cheaper rates during the off-peak hours between 10pm and 6am," Gonzi said as he explained that industry and households would enjoy reductions of between 6% and 27%"

Replying to questions posed by the civil society representatives, Gonzi underlined his administration's success in achieving industrial stability in tandem with all social partners including unions and employers.

In reaction to the president of the hotels and restaurants association, Tony Zahra's comments on the need for a national policy on energy, Gonzi stressed that the interconnector linking Malta to Sicily is not just an idea but "is on the table." He added that the project includes two fibre optic cables which would transmit data.

In a brief intervention, finance minister Tonio Fenech said that the PN administration had initiated a number of initiatives to strengthen a green economy and the party's electoral programme included a number of proposals which would see a mass roll out of 50 million euros to bolster the green economy.