New PN government will create 25,000 new jobs

The Nationalist Party will create 25,000 jobs in government, justice minister Chris Said said today.

Accompanied by former UHM secretary-general Gejtu Vella, a PN candidate, Said said the Nationalist government had weathered a financial storm but still created 20,000 jobs and saved a further 5,000 endangered jobs.

The PN will discuss its electoral programme tonight within its executive committee, and present the programme for approval on Friday by the party's General Council.

On his part, Vella said the Nationalist administration's success was down to the good decisions taken during the past four and a half years when the world faced the biggest depression since 1930.

Said added that a new PN government will keep working tirelessly over the next five years to create 25,000 new jobs.

"On the contrary, the last time Labour was in government, it managed to lose 4,000 jobs in 22 months," Said said while adding that Malta currently boasts of one of the lowest rates of unemployment in Europe and has reached the highest number ever of gainfully occupied persons.

The justice minister added that Labour leader Joseph Muscat's advice and ideas such as his energy plans, the recommendation to Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi to follow the Cypriot economic model, his advise to Iceland to stay out of the EU, his opposition to EU membership and the euro and his support for the removal of VAT in 1996, "were wrong and create unemployment."

He also said  that "Labour criticises projects like Smart City because they have not yet materialised, but it never stops to praise such success stories like the financial services sector in Malta."

Said said Malta's financial services sector had gone from strength to strength, attracting top international players in the industry thanks to targeted incentives introduced by Nationalist governments. "A good portion of the 20,000 jobs creation are within the finance industry, because it is an important contributor to economic growth in our country."

It is estimated that the sector employs over 12,000 people and has a very high female participation rate.

Among the initiatives a PN Government would take, Said mentioned the announced reduction in income tax to 25%, further tax credits to businesses, the completion of the bio-campus which will create jobs in research, further investment in tourism,  financial services and aviation, incentives to build five-star hotels in Gozo and investment in new campuses at Mcast, ITS and further investment at University.

The PN government also introduced legislation which ensured that all workers receive pro-rata benefits and terminated contracts of service suppliers who employed precarious workers, the PN candidates said.