The Malta Labour Party always believed in a bright future for Malta Shipyards and was still confident that it could become the best in the Mediterranean, MLP leader Alfred Sant said yesterday.

During a visit to the shipyard as part of activities to mark Workers’ Day, Dr Sant said the company should strive to keep up to date with technological advances, while the workers should be offered opportunities to be able to remain competitive. On this basis, the future of the shipyard would be guaranteed, he said.

Dr Sant, who was welcomed by chief executive officer Chris Bell, was shown the work that was currently in hand in Dock Number 6 and met some of the workers.

He said that the work on a vessel connected with the oil-drilling industry showed that shipyard workers were capable of facing new challenges.

He added that the MLP considered the shipyards as “national” and, when in government, it would not be prepared to risk its future.

Once elected, the MLP would carry out a strategic review of the shipyard, and would sustain operations that were functioning properly and correct whatever was going wrong, Dr Sant said.

In a statement, the Investment, Industry and IT ministry said Dr Sant had failed to pass on to the workers information he had been given by the management – that the commercial

situation at the shipyards was bad, largely because of serious defects in productivity.

He did not tell them, the ministry continued, that no government can continue to subsidise the shipyard after 2008, as specified under EU law.

Dr Sant and the MLP want to delude the workers that with the MLP in government, shipyard workers would not need to work to earn a living, the ministry said.