EU Membership Strengthens HP's Interest In Malta

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

14 May 2003

In an interview with the Malta Independent, Hewlett Packard vice president for data storage Olaf Swantee said the island's closer ties with the European Union have made the jurisdiction a much more attractive proposition in terms of investment, and the likelihood of future investment is high.

With markets in northern Europe already firmly established Swantee sees much growth potential in southern and eastern Europe and in the Mediterranean area.

“Now Malta will be a member of the EU it will make business much easier for us and we will probably increase our investments,” said Swantee, adding: “If we are doing business with Malta and other EU countries then working with the same currency will help logistics and solutions. We can start to be more flexible with our resources. The EU is also investing in Malta’s IT strategy and they will receive support.”

However, the HP representative tempered his optimism for the jurisdiction by explaining that Malta was part of a larger emerging European market strategy that included ten countries from the region. “We are very pleased with our business in Malta but in this medium term we do not foresee an opening of an office,” said Swantee.

Whilst the US IT giant is not planning any increased investment in the near to medium term, Swantee explained HP's ongoing commitment to the island: “HP already has a very strong presence in Malta with a strong network of experienced and committed channel partners. They are our successful extended arm in the country. There is continuous investment into training from both sides to even further increase the partner competence and we have some of the best trained experts in the whole region sitting in Malta eg. on storage, clustering etc,” explained the vice pesident.

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