Prime Minister Robert Abela on Sunday defended increased public sector employment in recent months, saying nearly all the new jobs had been created in the sectors of education and health.
In an interview on the Labour Party’s ONE Radio, Abela said that during the pandemic 9,000 new jobs had been created in Malta.
The Opposition, Abela said, would undoubtedly say these were mostly public sector jobs dished out by the government to secure the public’s vote for the next general election.
However, for every single new public sector new job, eight jobs had also been created in the private sector.
A closer look at the new public sector jobs, Abela said, showed nine in every 10 were in the fields of education and health.
“So, I would ask the Opposition leader how many of these new doctors, nurses or teachers would he sack?” Abela said.
In what has become his customary weekly sermon, the Labour leader went on to give a glowing review of his administration’s policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Initiatives such as vouchers and tax breaks had helped keep businesses from being crippled by the virus.
This, he said, was in stark contrast to the policy of austerity a Nationalist administration had introduced during the economic crisis in 2008.
In the coming days a private sector firm would be announcing a multi-million euro investment that would generate 100 new jobs in the manufacturing sector, Abela said.
The Opposition on the other hand, appeared to be celebrating the fact that several financial services operators had recently surrendered their licence.
But, he said, the financial services sector had generated an average of one new job every day in recent months pumping millions of euro into the economy.
“Or course the experts of unhappiness never talk about this,” he said.
Libya is about more than migration
Abela also weighed in on the outcome of Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah’s visit to Malta on Friday.
Dbeibah and a number of his ministers held talks with the Abela administration at the Auberge de Castille on Friday.
Abela said it was noteworthy that for once, the issue of migration was not the main topic up for discussion.
This, he said, was because Malta’s policy of working together with Libyan authorities had seen migrant arrivals to Malta virtually grind to a halt.
Instead, the leaders had discussed air connectivity between Malta and Libya, training for Libyan professionals in Malta, and the possibility of business opportunities.
Abela closed off with an appeal for the public to participate in the Labour Party’s upcoming general conference that will be held on Sunday September 19 at the MFCC.
Political participation, he said, is the best way to create the sort of change people want to see in the country.