Prime Minister Robert Abela inaugurated a new €12 million facility belonging to Burmarrad Group in Marsa on Monday, praising the company for its investment in sustainable technology and for its growth.

Mario Gauci, who founded the family-run Burmarrad Group in 1984, said that the company had faced many challenges since its humble beginnings, but that it had come through with the support of his family and of its workers.

He said that the new facility is “the realisation of a dream.”

The facility itself replaces what used to be Union Print in Marsa, and has become a reality after an investment of €12 million.

Gauci said that the facility will give the company the opportunity to become more efficient and to also increase its services by delving into manufacturing and full truck alterations.

He said that the company employed over 100 people, and that the new facility will create the opportunity for more jobs in the future.

Prime Minister Robert Abela, who inaugurated the new facility, said that moments like these are a confirmation of how the government had converted challenges into opportunities when it comes to the economy.

He said that this is the “attitude which will take Malta forward.”

Abela referred to recent praise for Malta’s economy from the European Commission and the credit rating agency Fitch – who both said that the country’s economy will continue to grow – and said that there is no better example of economic growth than seeing it in the flesh through investments like these.

He praised the “can-do attitude” of Gauci and said that he was one of the people who had told him not to give up during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Abela said that the company had gone from employing 50 people when the pandemic hit to 110 people today, adding that during the pandemic, while some had been saying that thousands would end up unemployed, the government had aided businesses such as this to create a total of 14,000 jobs.

“These businesses are the confirmation of the direction which our country is going in.  Credit rating agencies say prospects are very good, and this is because businesses like these exist, and we will continue to give them all our support so they move forward,” Abela said.

He noted that he was pleased to see that the facility had incorporated green and sustainable technology in its investment, through solar panels across the roof of the facility and a 1.5 million litre well for water storage.

“This is the type of investment we need to sustain as a government,” he said, before adding that the most recent Budget caters for this.