Looking back on the past three years in which he has served as prime minister, Lawrence Gonzi said last night that it had been a great honour for him to work with the people of Malta and to register the successes there have been.

Speaking at a dinner in a St Julian’s hotel, Dr Gonzi repeated what he had said when he was chosen: judge me not by my words but by my actions.

He then listed some of his achievements:

Unemployment is down, with 6,100 new jobs having been created in the past year alone; investment in 2006 totalled a record Lm500 million; the deficit has been reduced to Lm55 million and inflation to 2.5 per cent. Taxes have been cut, the public debt has been reduced and the government has obtained euro 855 million from the EU.

A recent Eurobarometer survey has shown that 90 per cent of the people are satisfied with their lifestyle and their jobs.

The government is investing no less than Lm126 million in the creation of new educational colleges such as St Benedict at Kirkop, is building new schools and is modernising no fewer than 130 schools.

As regards the environment, the government is spending no less than Lm50 million to close down the Maghtab waste facility and turn it into a national park, is introducing bring-in sites and civic amenity sites and has reduced the plastic waste mountain that previously existed.

Thousands of trees are being planted, there have been no fewer than 100 embellishment projects and 450 residential streets have been properly tarmacked, with a further 400 to be tarmacked in the coming months.