Jobs ‘not a priority for the Labour government’, Nationalist MPs say

The Nationalist Party has accused the government of not holding job creation as a priority, failing to come up with an action plan or policy which would reveal government's strategy on the sector.

In a statement, the Opposition spokespersons for economy, finance and competitiveness Mario de Marco, Tonio Fenech and Kristy Debono said the government had various occasions when to do so, but failed every time.

Referring to statistics published by the National Statistics Office, the spokespersons said during the PN government's last legislature, self-employed increased by 3,300 in various sectors.

"These sectors continued growing thanks to the trust which foreign investors and business owners had in the country's economy," the PN said. "But these results are not achieved in a vacuum."

It said that specific schemes had been developed by the previous administration to attract and sustain investment, referring to reports published by the World Economic Forum which placed Malta among the 20 best countries in terms of technology, banks stability, exportation, ports infrastructure and high education and health services.

"These results were achieved when the world economy was in recession which led to the collapse of a number of economies within the European Union. While other countries resorted to austerity measures, our country registered economic growth, increase in investment and job creation."

The Opposition said it was worrying that an increase in unemployment was registered during July. "The Labour government's record is that unemployment is increasing every months. Contrary to the past five years, job creation doesn't appear to be a priority for Joseph Muscat's government," it added.

It went on to say that statistics related to imports, exports and manufacturing were also worrying as decreases were registered during the first seven months of this year.