In effect, Malta not only loses out on jobs and investment, but also the opportunity to go into high-tech areas of production, which in turn could have attracted further environmentally friendly business. This was a lost national opportunity to score a first in the potential of creating a green-technology hub, Mr Agius said.

“It is hard to say whose fault this is. At first the company blamed the Maltese authorities for being inefficient and bureaucratic, now they are not saying anything. We are not blaming the government directly, but something isn’t being done right,” Mr Agius said.

“The government should have a proper human resource strategy for those public sectors whose work is no longer required. The government could have retrained a number of MDD employees and offered their services at a subsidised cost to companies like this one, rather than leaving these employees inactive and totally unmotivated in local councils,” he said.

The country must get its act together and avoid petty squabbling, Mr Agius concluded.