[WATCH] New government jobs are in education, health – PM

Nine of 10 new jobs offered by government in recent months were created in the education and health sectors, according to Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday.

During an interview on ONE, Abela said on Sunday that 9,000 new jobs were created in Malta during the pandemic, whereby for every new job in the public sector, eight jobs had been created in the private sector.

This while nine in every 10 public sector jobs were created in the education and health sectors.

Listing through his government’s economic feats throughout the pandemic, Abela said that the government voucher scheme provided a €33 million injection into the local economy, of which €2.4 million was spent in Gozo.

“Over the past few days, over 6,000 businesses received rental assistance of €1.6 million euro. Until the end of September we will be covering over half of commercial utility bills for June, July and August – the height of [Malta’s] economic recovery.”

“No matter what the Opposition tries to say, Malta is recovering well from the economic shock of the pandemic. We believe in progressive economic policies instead of resorting to austerity politics,” he stated.

During his regular Sunday interviews, Abela often celebrates his government’s focus on spending and investment, while having a jab at the Nationalist Party and claiming that it is still in favour of austerity.

Libya is an opportunity

Abela gave a brief overview of a recent official visit from the Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah. He said that the two spoke not only about irregular migration, but also health, education, and investment.

However, he added that it would be useless to talk about investment in Libya without ensuring proper connectivity between the two countries, especially through air travel.

He recalled that the transport ministers from the respective countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Friday that will allow air travel to resume.

Abela said that the migration issue was far from the main topic during bilateral talks, as increased cooperation with Libyan authorities have seen migrant arrivals virtually come to a stop.

He also added that peace and stability in Libya is a priority, but emphasised that there should be no foreign interference on the way Libya is led. “It needs to be a process of the Libyan people,” he said.