Nationalist Party deputy leader Tonio Borg said the City Gate and Royal Opera House project will give more dignity to Valletta as a cultural city and will stimulate the economy. The country will be celebrating three great events in the coming years, the 450th anniversary of the founding of Valletta in 2016, its EU presidency in 2017 and Valletta as the European Cultural capital city in 2018.

Speaking in Hamrun, Dr Borg said the government will finance the project as it did not want it to be commercially exploited. He said the Royal Opera House site will be transformed into the new house of parliament and a cultural centre, thus it will be the house of all the Maltese.

The government’s aim in reforming the public transport sector, said the Deputy Prime Minister, was to provide a better service for the people. The current operators, he said, gave a good service at a personal sacrifice, as the service is one of the cheapest when compared to other countries. The reform, he said, aimed at creating more termini and more routes that would guarantee a more flexible service with more buses that pollute less.