The national strategy on information technology, The Smart Island, was discussed and agreed on in the national consultative council about IT, which includes all parties in society, including the Labour Party, the IT ministry said.

For MLP IT spokesman Leo Brincat to pretend to be appealing for consensus was nothing but a weak attempt for him to appropriate for himself the government’s successes. Consensus on IT had not been achieved only between government and opposition but included also industry, the commercial community, society, educators and the public administration.

The ministry said Mr Brincat had confirmed that operators in the IT sector and potential investors had expressed serious concern about the possibility of Labour being elected to government. This was because of the ideological hostility to all forms of technology which the MLP has and always had.

It added that major operators in the sector had expressed the same concern with it which they had expressed with Mr Brincat.

In another statement, the ministry said a Nationalist government will not privatise Air Malta because it considered the airline as a strategic national assset.

The PN in government guaranteed all the jobs at Air Malta and would continue paying overtime at time and a half, or even at a higher rate, it added. This commitment was confirmed in the PN electoral programme and in a letter the Prime Minister wrote to Air Malta employees. Nothing (MLP tourism spokesman) Evarist Bartolo or the General Workers’ Union said would change these clear promises, the ministry added.

The Nationalist government had restructured Air Malta and guaranteed all the jobs. It had managed to do this although in the last five years bigger airlines than Air Malta had collapsed and shed many jobs or closed down.