The minister said the government is aware that the best future for the Maltese lies in renewal policies in the economy in the private and public sector.

Dr Galea claimed the Employment and Training Centre statistics show that the number of unemployed people is falling, as are the number of redundancies.

He said that hundreds of people who lost their jobs in the first four months of the year have already found employment and the government is carrying out the biggest restructuring project in the public sector in the last 30 years.

The Maltese should have faith, and work towards the renewal of the economy to create more jobs and promote development, continued Dr Galea. He denied Dr Sant’s claim that 12,000 government workers will be out of a job by 2008, saying the government aims to make the civil and public sector as effective and productive as possible.

Minister Galea said that the MLP has not made any suggestions or concrete proposals that can promote employment. The Opposition’s “study is worthy of a sixth form economics student,” Dr Galea concluded.