Malta Labour Party leadership hopeful Michael Falzon yesterday reiterated his stance on business, saying that all players including the government, trade unions and employers needed to work together as partners in order to encourage progress and economic development.

Dr Falzon was taking questions from The Malta Independent during a walkabout visit to the Vittoriosa market yesterday morning as part of his MLP leadership election campaign.

TMID referred to the current scenario where ST Microelectronics was considering pulling the plug on its Malta operation, tied in with the global economic slowdown, and asked what Dr Falzon would do if elected to the country’s top post if a similar scenario came about.

“In a meeting I had with the Malta Employers Association, I had said that all players need to work together to ensure economic growth and progress for workers and employers,” he said.

He continued: “We cannot all be competitors in this game, we must all work together and pull in one direction. The ST problem has been in the offing and it is tied into the fact that they deal in US dollars, whose value is dropping, as well as the ever spiralling cost of fuel oil.”

He continued: “If elected, I would do my utmost, as would the party as a whole, to safeguard the rights of workers in order to protect them and their families. One must not forget that we could be talking about thousands of people who might find themselves in difficulty.”

Dr Falzon said that ST produced around half of Malta’s total exports. “One could only imagine the blow to the whole country if they had to up sticks and leave,” he said. Dr Falzon said that a Labour government, under his leadership, would leave no stone unturned in an effort to save such an operation.

He said that touring the market yesterday, many people were making him aware that there was a problem of dwindling sales, attributed to the rising cost of living. He said that prior to the last election, the MLP had presented its proposals for development of the Grand Harbour area, proposals, he said, which were still valid and would be pushed forward by the MLP under his leadership.