Aircraft maintenance firmeyeing Malta, minister says

Following the successful operations of Lufthansa Technik and SRT, the government was now in talks with another company in aircraft maintenance, according to Finance Minister Tonio Fenech.

He made this announcement while winding up the debate on the Budget estimates of his ministry, saying monopolies were a thing of the past. The government was prepared to offer state aid similar to that given to local companies during the global recession to help them find new markets and investment. It was also prepared to enter into joint ventures to attract what he called “first pullers” like Lufthansa which in turn attracted SRT and now this company which he did not name.

It had now attracted a new company in the digital gaming sector and bought 15 per cent of its share capital. The company would em-ploy 100 young men and women who would learn how this new sector worked.

Mr Fenech said that the letter sent by the EU commissioner had req-uested the government to address the deficit issue. The government complied in next year’s budget plans. He himself had explained this to the Commissioner. And the Commission was satisfied with the action taken.

Air Malta and Greek loans were part of financing and not of the loan and €38 million out of €80 million to be paid in allowances went to professionals in the health sector.

Mr Fenech said that €2 billion out of the €4.5 billion in national debt was due to the dockyard and the 8,000 workers employed with the government before the 1987 election. The Sant administration had also incurred €700 million in debt. Another part of national debt had been incurred for investment in the infrastructure, which was necessary for economic development.

All budgets in the present legislature had been positive, slipping into deficit for capital investments. It was true that higher votes for capital expenditure had not been reached. EU funds up to €120 million yearly would be available until 2015, but only once they were committed to.

Work had already started on extensive projects in the 2011 Budget that would mature in 2012. These included the oncology hospital, the Biopark, the Life Sciences Park, industrial zones, roads and ports.

Mr Fenech said the government’s strategy to reduce the deficit was not by increasing taxes such as on cigarettes and cement, but primarily by control on government spending where it was not socially needed.

Plants like STMicroelectronics were a major part of the country’s imports and exports, as was the trading in fuel. It was not this year’s oil export figures that had been wrong but last year’s which had been overlooked. In 2010, as Malta had been coming out of the financial crisis, it had exported much more than previously.

The government did not agree with bunkering operators that the proposed tax was illegal. Talks on its implementation had brought up some proposals on other ways of achieving the targeted €6 million.

There had been a 37 per cent rise in investment in 2010, and for Malta Enterprise, 2011 would result as the best year since 2007 for investment and job creation.

Instead of scaling back, the three important operators quoted by the opposition – Playmobil, Trelleborg and Toly – had respectively increased their workforce by 74, 32 and five by November. The latter two had been among those going for a four-day week and helped out by the government during the recession.

The concept of service charge on industrial estates had been in all factory leasing contracts for years. There had been no hikes in rentals since 2004 but some lease contracts were now close to expiry. The government preferred to invest itself through Malta Industrial Parks but then expected the investment to be covered in the rental rates.

Mr Fenech said the service charge was not intended as revenue but to keep up industrial zones with quality for Excellence 2015. Many factories were kept in pristine shape internally but their surroundings were dismal.

It was preferable for the tenants’ associations to handle such tasks, and if the cost turned out to be lower than the moneys accrued they could have refunds or have the surplus knocked down from the following year’s rates.

Talks were under way on a new scheme for heavy energy users, particularly those with thousands of workers.

The government’s promise of a one-stop shop for industry would be coming true with the Bio Park at San Ġwann, and the minister had personally committed himself to ensure that economic operators would get feedback within 10 days. Such a commitment with the economic sectors was important because they created jobs and paid taxes.

Even in such difficult times as the conflict in Libya, the government had supported more than 70 Maltese companies with interests there, including postponing payments.

During the past four years the government had voted €20 million for industry. With tongue in cheek Mr Fenech apologised to local industry because they had not really received €20 million, but €42 million. And by next year that would have increased to €48 million, taken from other projects. This was just one of the many ways in which the government had helped and would continue to help local industry.

Earlier, Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi said the Cabinet had resolved that 80 per cent of those wishing to open their own business need only notify the Commerce Department, removing all bureaucratic procedures. He said 1,000 business licences had been issued this year.

The Land Department was to transfer 125 residential blocks to the Housing Authority for the home ownership scheme. He announced that 3,200 residences in Cottonera and Valletta, which had been rented after the war, would be offered to the tenants for ownership at non-commercial rates.

An exercise to identify vacant property in Valletta was under way. The 160,000 files in the Land Department were being scanned and digitised. The government had paid €2.4 million for expropriated land this year and 17 expropriated parcels of land which the government had never used had been returned to their owners. Revenue for the Land Department this year amounted to €38 million.

Dr Azzopardi said 363 leases of Church property, that had been passed to the government under the 1993 agreement, had been redeemed.