In his partisan speech during the General Workers’ Union congress, the opposition leader declared himself against the privatisation of 20 per cent of the Malta International Airport shares.

The opposition leader showed himself to be against privatisation on ideological grounds. There is no other way of fathoming his opposition to an opportunity for the Maltese public to invest in an enterprise that, since its partial privatisation, has witnessed the price of its shares rise by 92 per cent and has issued Lm6.97 million in dividends to its owners.

Why is the opposition leader opposing this political initiative of the government, when all the financial experts are advising their clients of this good opportunity to invest?

There can only be one reason: the opposition leader is committed to a system of government intervention in the economy and continues to believe that the economy is better off if the government indulges in commerce in

competition with the private sector.

The government has the opposite conviction. It is better for the public to be the direct owner of investment currently in government ownership. We believe in a country where it is better to have more shares in companies owned by the public.

In contrast with Dr Sant, the government believes that it must continue to withdraw from commerce and direct trading and leave the space for the private sector, which is much better skilled in these areas.

It is unfortunate that the more time that passes, the clearer it becomes that Dr Alfred Sant is feeling ever more comfortable in far left political dogmas.

Austin Gatt is Investments, Industry and IT Minister