Tourism portfolio given to Deputy PM to send strong message, PM says

The inclusion of the tourism portfolio under the wing of the Deputy Prime Minister, who is also responsible for foreign affairs, was specifically intended to send the message on the importance of this industry, Prime Minister Robert Abela said Friday.

Abela was asked whether the decision to add tourism to an already large ministry belittled the industry and was a sign that the PM had little confidence in parliamentary secretaries and backbenchers, who were deemed to be not fit for a promotion to the Cabinet.

In his reply, Abela said that, on the contrary, the message that he wanted to send was that tourism was an important sector, so much so that it is now under the responsibility of the deputy PM, Ian Borg.

The PM said that Borg had been able to run massive ministries which included Infrastructure and Transport in the past, and had shown good time management.

Added to this, Malta will soon be relinquishing its seat on the United Nations Security Council and the chairmanship of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which would therefore mean that some of Borg's workload will be taken away from him in the next few weeks.