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maltatoday SUNDAY 11 FEBRUARY 2018 News 3 YANNICK PACE PRIME Minister Joseph Muscat has for the third time declared that under "no cir- cumstances" will he change his mind to step down as prime minister, after two terms in govern- ment. He had already an- nounced his intention not to run a third elec- tion before the 2017 snap election, and in parlia- ment when a d d r e s s i n g the House on the assassina- tion of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Muscat was speak- ing on Radju Malta's Ghandi Xi Nghid, where he spoke with presenter Andrew Azzo- pardi, where he said he would stick to his word and step down from his post by the next election and will not change his mind. Muscat yesterday said he was not excluding calling a referendum to have voters give the Government the mandate to radically change the Maltese Constitution. "I don't want to jump the gun and say anything that could undermine the good process there is on go- ing now," he said. "I don't exclude holding a referendum if a strong mandate is needed for a totally new Constitution or one with many new elements." Asked what was keeping the Government from getting the ball rolling on promised constitutional reform, Muscat said work was un- derway behind the scenes to en- sure there is a "structure" that all parties are comfortable with, and that could reach the desired goals. He thanked President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca for bringing the two parties together, and for ensuring that the reform did not adopt a top-down approach, but rather would include all the people that made up the different facets of Maltese society. Muscat said he was happy to hear that the Archbishop would not op- pose the removal of Catholicism from the Constitution, stressing that while Malta was a predomi- nantly Catholic country, the Con- stitution's wording could do with some changes. This also applied to issues such as Malta's neutrality, which he said could be worded differently. Muscat stressed that being a secular state did not mean one that lacked values. "A set of moral val- ues that define a society aren't nec- essarily tied to one denomination or another." Muscat said that while he con- sidered himself a Catholic, he also understood that a politician had to rise above his own convictions and ensure that all people could live freely. "The most crucial point in all of this was the divorce referendum," said Muscat. "From that point on it seemed like the country wanted to move with the times." Muscat said President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca will be lead- ing the constitutional reform, but did not exclude the involvement of others. It's either Steward or VGH Turning to the ongoing dispute with the Medical Association of Malta (MAM), Muscat said he could not understand the doctors' reasoning. "If MAM were speak- ing that way when we were signing with VGH I would have under- stood their position," he said. The Prime Minister said the MAM had agreed with roping in the private sector to help with the health sector. "It will all be the same except that we'll get Steward instead of VGH, which by the way, was a company that MAM was against because it had no experience," he said, add- ing that had the Government not accepted the transfer to Steward Health Care, the hospitals would have remained under VGH's con- trol. He said that while the Govern- ment was willing to discuss ways of improving the public-private partnership in place, it was not prepared to tear up the agreement. "They should have said that two years ago." 'Can't criticise Konrad Mizzi for not being a doer' Discussing Air Malta, Muscat said the airline was slowly being turned around and defended tour- ism minister Konrad Mizzi's role in managing the airline. "Everyone knows the criticism that is levelled against him but no- body can criticise him for not being a doer." Azzopardi asked Muscat whether June's election had exonerated Mizzi and his chief-of-staff Keith Schembri over their "morally dubi- ous" offshore dealings, which were exposed in the Panama Papers. Muscat insisted that Schembri "has a history in business and gave his explanations" but added that in the case of Mizzi, a politician, "when the story broke I took ac- tion." Azzopardi chimed in saying that Mizzi being "kicked upstairs" hard- ly constituted action. "He wasn't really kicked upstairs. He ended up as a minister without a portfolio, needing to report to me, all of this wasn't easy." He added that Mizzi was made to resign as deputy leader of the La- bour Party. "Everyone convenient- ly forgets these things. Sanctions were applied." Muscat said that after Mizzi had published his audit, the party went to the nation who re-elected him. Crane don't need to curry favour with Schembri Muscat was also asked about Crane Currency, which this week opened its printing factory in Mal- ta. He said the company's former CEO had emailed him upon find- ing out that De La Rue was plan- ning to downsize its Malta opera- tion. "When they decided to open a Malta facility, we decided to en- sure there were enough trained workers, by launching an MCAST course." Asked whether he felt that Keith Schembri had a conflict of interest, given that one of his companies was the local agent for the sup- plier of Crane's equipment, Muscat pointed out that De La Rue, a com- pany that had been in Malta for over 40 years, also used the same equipment. "It means the machines are very good. He is not making them him- self, he only represents them." Muscat argued that like Schem- bri, there were many high-rank- ing PN officials whose law firms provided consultancy services to international companies brought to Malta by his administration. "I don't think a multinational com- pany that prints dollars, needs to curry favour with the chief-of-staff of the Prime Minister of a country by buying one machine or anoth- er," said Muscat. ypace@mediatoday.com.mt Muscat reiterates intention to step down PM moots referendum for 'completely new' Maltese Constitution, changes on religion and neutrality "I don't exclude holding a referendum if a strong mandate is needed for a totally new Constitution or one with many new elements" I am leaving... Joseph Muscat has again declared he will not be changing his mind Doctors plan more industrial action this week MASSIMO COSTA THE Medical Association of Mal- ta's council has authorised the doctors' union to carry out more industrial action on the 15 and 16 February, should negotiations with the Government fail to reach a satisfactory conclusion by that date. In a council resolution passed yesterday, the MAM said that it had not received from the Gov- ernment documents related to the transfer to Steward Health Care of the 99-year concession to run three state hospitals, from Vitals Global Healthcare. MAM had requested the documents on 7 February – following its in- dustrial action the previous day – despite the promise of contract transparency. "The first indications are that while the Government is agreeing in principle with MAM it will not be accepting MAM proposals," the council said, "either because of lack of intention or serious dif- ficulties arising from a contract with inadequate exit clauses re- sulting from lack of expertise or otherwise in the drafting of the original contract." VGH was granted the run of the three hospitals but 21 months lat- er, in December 2017, decided to transfer the concession to Ameri- can private healthcare giant Stew- ard, for an undisclosed sum. The MAM said it will not write to third parties involved in the hospitals' concession and make public any correspondence, should the dispute remain unre- solved. The MAM said it will proceed with legal action if its legal advi- sors deemed this necessary. It said patients who missed their appointment would have it re- scheduled to not more than four weeks after the date of the indus- trial action. MAM reiterated that it was not against public-private partner- ships, but in principle opposed public health services operated by organisations meant to make profit. mcosta@mediatoday.com.mt MATTHEW VELLA THE Maltese economy has re- tained its A+ credit rating from the Fitch agency, on the back of robust growth and strong eco- nomic governance. With low unemployment de- clining to 4% in 2017 when com- pared to 'A' peers, Maltese house- holds were said to have high net worth. Growth reached 7.2% up until the third quarter of 2017, and sta- bilised at an unprecedented 7%. Growth will probably be slowed at 5.8% in 2018, thanks to strong domestic demand, low unem- ployment, and higher wages from increased private consumption. Increased use of EU funds and large projects in health and edu- cation will stimulate industries for equipment and machinery invest- ment, and higher house prices will further residential investment. While a new Malta Develop- ment Bank is expected to support SME financing, ongoing labour shortages are likely to put pres- sure on wages. "Unit labour costs are set to increase despite im- proved labour productivity and could dampen Malta's price com- petitiveness in the medium term." Fitch said real estate prices were still rising at a fast pace due to a strong inflow of foreign workers, booming tourism sector, exemp- tion of stamp duty for first-time buyers and supply constraints. "However, prices appear to still be in line with fundamentals ac- cording to the Central Bank of Malta and we believe mitigating factors to potential instability stemming from the housing sec- tor are relatively strong." Fitch said Malta's shift to more service-oriented and less invest- ment-intensive sectors will sus- tain a current account surplus of 9.7% of GDP, while the general government balance will remain in surplus in 2018 at 1.5% of GDP. "Buoyant tax proceeds sup- ported by robust nominal GDP growth, dynamic labour mar- ket and ongoing revenues from the International Investor Pro- gramme (IIP) will offset the rising wage bill," Fitch said, referring to higher-than-expected passport sales delivering a higher fiscal sur- plus for the State. "The Government intends to reach a fiscal surplus net of IIP revenues over the coming years and we expect the structural bal- ance to reach an average 0.7% of GDP in 2018-2019." Fitch said public spending would remain fairly stable at 38.1% of GDP in 2018, namely through social security payments, and said Malta would reap "sav- ings from ongoing comprehen- sive spending reviews [that] will likely offset increasing costs in the health sector." Government debt was said to be "on a firm downward trajectory" thanks to economic growth, de- clining to 48.1% of GDP. Malta retains 'A+' rating from Fitch