Malta And Cyprus Powering Ahead In Telecommunications, Says Report

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

11 June 2002

Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia are leading the field of EU candidate countries in terms of telecommunications and information technology, according to a recent report.

The progress report on the 'eEurope+' initiative, designed to mirror a similar EU action plan, and launched in June 2001 to 'assist in accelerating reform and modernisation of the economies in the candidate countries through the use of Information Society technologies and tools' revealed that the three countries are forging ahead of other accession hopefuls, and in some cases of EU averages in ICT development.

According to the report, almost 100% of the populations of Malta, Cyprus, and Slovenia have access to a land line telephone, compared to an EU average of 86%, and an applicant country average of 77%. Around 30% of the Maltese population have access to the internet, and costs in both Cyprus and Malta are lower than both the EU and candidate country averages.

Commenting on the results of the progress report, Maltese Justice Minister, Austin Gatt expressed pleasure at Malta's high ranking, observing that: 'The results are very satisfactory and show that the government's vision of making ICT readily available in Malta is beginning to take shape.'

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