There seems to be greater economic activity this Christmas, said Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg, attributing this to the fact that the budget was presented earlier in the year, that incentives have been given to businesses, that people have more money to spend and that 6,100 new jobs had been created.

Speaking on Radio 101, Dr Borg said that Malta will be the first country to benefit from EU funds as from next year, because it was the most prepared country in this respect. The e855 million from the EU will be used to improve the Maltese way of life.

Government policies had enabled the country to make giant strides forward in social and economic sectors, he said.

As an example, Dr Borg said that during the last Labour government the country’s deficit had shot up to 10 per cent of GDP, and today it had been brought down to less than three per cent.

He described the investment in Lufthansa Technik (550 jobs), the HSBC call centre (350 jobs) and the expansion of several companies like Dedicated Micros and De La Rue as being a vote of confidence, adding that Lm1 million had been invested in the country every day in the previous year.

He ended his remarks by urging people to donate as much as they could during to today’s Nationalist Party campaign to raise funds to complete the rebuilding of the party’s headquarters.