Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi yesterday described the Maltese as a resource “more precious than an oil well”, in an activity held in Kalkara, just a few metres away from Labour MP Joe Mizzi’s office – who is claiming he’ll be able to extract oil when elected to power.
Yesterday evening, Gonzi repeatedly invited his electorate to analyse both the PN’s and the MLP’s electoral proposals closely. Strategically placed in front of two billboards pledging ‘Gonzi creates jobs’, the PN leader said his party had embarked upon ambitious proposals which will help generate more work, because it cared for the Maltese.
He reminded his audience of his budget proposals, including allowing pensioners to get a full pension even if they opt to keep on working.
Gonzi said Mater Dei hospital was experiencing a lack of workers and appealed to young people to take up medical studies as the country needed more health workers and nurses.
He said not all the 5,600 jobs in Smart City would be IT related, insisting that 2,000 of these will be purely for gardeners, manual workers and receptionists.
“Not all students have the same abilities, we understand that,” said the PN leader, promising that there will be jobs for these people too.
He referred to a recent visit in Lufthansa Technik, where one of the workers confirmed that she only had obtained one O-Level.
Then he pledged that jobs in pharmaceutical sector would be perfect for people who only attained two or three Matsec certificates.
During the activity, a video clip was shown of Pierre Fava, President of the Association of Employers, confirming there were numerous challenges ahead, insisting that many more people needed incentives in order to take up employment.
“Most of the times these incentives messages are not getting through. A lot of work needs to be done so that the message goes through,” Fava said.
Ivan Bartolo, a businessman in the ICT sector, said the EU experience was an enriching experience for his company as it continued expanding in the international market, making a name for itself.
“I left my wife and kids and had to go to the UK in order to set up my business. Now the market itself is coming over to Malta,” Bartolo stated.
Gonzi repeated last Sunday’s appeal to his grassroots. “Do not take anything for granted. We have to hunt every vote. For us, every vote counts. We have valid arguments.”
Gonzi said that he was not surprised that people from Kalkara gave him a very warm welcome. “I can confirm, myself hailing from this area, that there were times where we could not even hold a corner meeting in Kalkara. People would run us over with their cars.”