Gozo is to remain at the centre of the government’s policies, should the Nationalist Party be re-elected to power on 8 March, Prime Minister and PN leader Lawrence Gonzi told a business breakfast in Marsalforn yesterday morning.

While Malta’s sister island is to benefit directly from the PN’s electoral proposals, it is also to benefit from its 2015 vision, which lays out six areas in which Malta as a country is to become a centre of excellence – namely tourism, financial services, specialised manufacturing, health services, information technology and education. The island is also to benefit from Gozo-specific measures included in the 2015 plan.

At the centre of the PN’s vision for Gozo, Dr Gonzi said, was the initiative to transform Gozo into an “eco-island”, which would also bolster the island’s tourism allure.

Of the e855 million in funding granted to Malta by the European Union, 10 per cent, or e85 million, is to be invested directly into Gozo.

The government over the last legislature, Dr Gonzi said, had invested heavily in Gozo, and would continue to do so should the PN be entrusted to lead the country over the next five years.

Citing a number of service companies recently setting up shop in Gozo, Dr Gonzi acknowledged the fact that it was important that Gozo forms an integral part of the country’s emergence as an information technology hotspot.

Gozo, he said, had been given a voice in Cabinet but should be given an even stronger voice in other sections of the government, as well as within EU structures.