Points from the speech delivered by the Hon. Charles Buhagiar, Minister for Public Works and Construction, at the Designs '97 Exhibition

This public exhibition of architectural and artistic works by the students of the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering proves the creativity and excellent techniques possessed by these students who are the professionals of tomorrow.

With the advent of Local Councils the function of the Design Unit (better known as the Building and Engineering Department) within the Works Division has taken a new dimension. Local Councils now provide for the implementation of relatively small local embellishment schemes which previously used to be carried out by the Works Division.

The role of the Works Division has now been "upgraded" to provide for embellishment schemes and projects on the national and regional level. Hence we are committed to projects such as the creation of national parks, large national projects such as the new prison facilities and projects of a specific nature such as rehabilitation projects.

This has meant that the Design Unit has been restructured to include new departments, besides the traditional architectural, structural engineering, building service, quality surveying and land surveying. We now have departments which cater for:

environmental planning - probably one of the most important sections

restoration and rehabilitation - an area which government intends to promote

road engineering - a new section which we lack very badly as can be very easily seen for the atrocious state of our roads

landscaping - another area which requires special skills which to date we lack

Other departments which are new or are being extensively upgraded are:

(a) estates management section

(b) co-ordination unit

(c) national mapping unit (GIS)

(d) contracting section

5. For all these sections/departments/ units we need qualified personnel which we not only lack, but, in some instances, the University does not provide for. We are trying to address this problem by continuous collaboration with the University so as to introduce courses (even at post graduate level) and special modules in existing courses in the various areas where we lack expertise.

6. Employment with the Works Division will not probably provide a graduate with the best remuneration but it could definitely provide a challenge to work on huge projects of national importance. Due to the size of the projects usually one has to work in a team and not as a soloist which also means that one can learn by sharing in the experience of others.

7. We want our Design Unit to work on a professional basis and we are in the process of recruiting the services of a foreign consultant who can assist us in upgrading the services provided by this Unit.

8. It gave me great satisfaction when we issued a call for employment of architects we received various applications from the final year students. My aim is that we provide the best professional service and to do that you need to recruit the best professionals. Some of you, through your projects have shown that they can produce excellent work. I invite you all to join our team - the team which will build the future of our country.