During the latest meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Gozo Affairs, the PN members of the Committee Chris Said and Kevin Cutajar, said that it emerged that the Gozo Business Chamber (GBC) is insisting that while the measures announced this week “are good for the coming months there is an urgent need for a long-term strategic plan for Gozo.”

This was stressed by President of the GBC Joe Borg, when answering questions from Gozitan Deputies Chris Said and Kevin Cutajar.

According to Said and Cutajar, Joe Borg insisted that the economy of Gozo needs to be diversified and no longer depend so much on tourism in view of the fact that 50% of Gozo’s Gross Domestic Product is derived from tourism.

They said that, Borg also stressed that with the mini budget announced by the Government last Monday, Gozo lost the important benefit it had of a preferential tax rate whenever a sale of a property located on the island took place.

“This is because the so-called mini budget has created a situation where the same tax will apply to all property sales in Malta and Gozo,” said the Gozitan Deputies.

The went on to say that, “according to Borg, the preferential tax rate for Gozo should remain the same.”

Said and Cutajar went on to say that various questions were also put to the CEO of Steward Health Care, who confirmed that Steward had “changed their owners and the Government had been informed, with discussions currently underway to renegotiate the contract for the privatisation of hospitals, including the Gozo General Hospital.”

The Gozitan MPs said that Steward’s CEO confirmed that it is the Government paying the rent for the hotel in Victoria where the elderly are residing after the move from the Sant Anna Residence. They said that she was unable to provide a date for their return to the Residence.

The PN said that when asked by the Gozitan Deputies about the fact that Steward had to build a new hospital in Gozo by June 2018, the CEO could not commit to a date when the construction of this hospital would start.

Gozitan Deputies Chris Said and Kevin Cutajar said that they “deplored the fact that the meeting was not able to continue, with questions still to be put to the CEO of the Gozo Tourism Association, because the Minister for Gozo Clint Camilleri had at no time attended the meeting, and Minister for Animal Welfare Anton Refalo left in the middle of the meeting.”

The PN stated, there was “no quorum, and therefore in the middle of the meeting, Chairman Justyne Caruana had to call an adjournment.”

Photo by Alain Salvary

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