Azzjoni Nazzjonali leader Josie Muscat yesterday made a plea for more incentives to be created for self-employed and small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Speaking during a visit to the Attard Industrial Estate, Muscat reiterated his party’s pledge to combat bureaucracy: “SMEs are faced with bureaucracy which stunts the growth of their business. They spend most of their time seeing how to cope with bureaucracy, instead of seeing how to move forward,” said Muscat.
Employers having their factory in the Attard Industrial Estate said that they feel abandoned and their voice is not heard. The place is evidently run down and Muscat described the some of the factories’ conditions as “substandard”.
“Some of the factories go against all health and safety measures,” said one of the owners whilst pointing at his asbestos roofing. To which Muscat rejoined: “The factories are in such a bad state that they are not even good enough to for animals, let alone workers.”
According to Josie Muscat, the government has let these workers down. “These businessman are not asking the Government for money. They are ready to invest money, however the Government does not offer them any support whatsoever,” said a disgusted Muscat.
During the press briefing, Muscat mentioned that 35% of the working population worked with the Government, calling the civil servant workers “unproductive”, underlining that more people should be encouraged to have their own business.
Deputy Leader Anglu Xuereb who was accompanying Muscat, suggested there should be a One-Stop-Shop office. Here one can find all the necessary help without the need to go to various Government departments.

The South has been neglected
From Attard Industrial Estate, the Azzjoni Nazzjonali delegation moved to Cottonera, where Muscat called for more investment in education to make the people of this depressed area “little rich people”. To make this possible Muscat suggested “that two schools should be opened, one to educate the locals in dealing with tourists and another one to teach business”.
Muscat also highlighted the country’s demographic split, pointing out that the North is much more developedthan the South area. For practical reasons, tourist agencies tend to take tourists to the North. However most of the history is in the South, so more tourists should be attracted to the area.
The AN leader suggested that there should be more souvenir shops and restaurants to attract tourists. Both Muscat and Xuereb said that they are not against the MLP or PN proposed projects for the area; however, they argue that these projects will cot the taxpayer millions of euros, which in reality are not necessary.