Malta's Leading ICT Ranking Confirmed

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

09 September 2008

The European Commission has this week confirmed Malta’s high ICT ranking, recognising it again this year as "well advanced in information society, with many benchmarking indicators significantly above the EU average", the Maltese government has announced.

In its i2010 mid-term review (Preparing Europe’s Digital Future) the European Commission recognised Malta as Europe’s undisputed leader with regard to the indicator of basic public services for enterprises being fully available online.

"That leading position gives Maltese business a unique competitive advantage over all other businesses in Europe due to the fact that they are the only businesses in the entire European Union to benefit from a complete range of services online," the government observed.

Maltese basic public services available online for Maltese citizens are at 92%, the second best ranking in Europe compared with the European average of 51%, the Maltese authorities further revealed. The rapidity of the increase in these services was also noted by the Commission, which observed that in 2004, only 33% of Maltese public services to citizens were available online.

Broadband penetration in Maltese households as a percentage of households with an internet connection exceeds the European average, showing a greater take-up of Broadband among Maltese internet users. Maltese businesses are the 4th best connected in Europe to broadband and Malta’s population is the 5th most covered by DSL coverage in the EU.

Malta’s businesses use technology more than the average of their competitors in Europe, and the jurisdiction well exceeds European averages in integrating e-business in internal processes and in the use of ERP and analytical CRM systems, the government stated.

The ratio of Maltese employees with ICT skills is the 5th largest in Europe, and the ratio of ICT specialists in Malta is also ahead of European average.

The important contribution of ICT to Malta’s economy is indicated by the fact that Malta’s economy enjoys the third largest contribution to its GDP from the ICT sector, and the fourth largest employment ratio in the EU.

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications, Austin Gatt, remarked that these rankings: “once again confirm the rapid pace with which Malta is realising its ambition of becoming ‘the Smart Island’. The Smart Island means smart business, smart employees, smart schooling, smart government and smart public services. We have been confirmed as European leaders in some of those sectors and in any case very good performance on all of those fronts."

He went on to add that:

“The i2010 mid-term review is an opportunity for us to refine our weaknesses. We want to do more to stimulate take up among Maltese businesses, especially SMEs and the MCA’s work in this regard, in partnership with the GRTU and the Chamber of Commerce should improve our rankings even further by the end of the i2010 programme term."

“But the real challenge remains attracting and training more people to achieve specialist training in this sector. SmartCity will mean that we will exceed several times over our current, albeit high, rankings in ICT contribution to GDP and ICT specialist employment."

"We are getting ready for this challenge by opening up every possible opportunity for ICT training to anyone interested in taking that opportunity up. But we need to do more to get more people interested."

The Minister concluded: “The EU’s i2010 mid-term review is certainly cause for satisfaction for Malta. But the regatta is not over and we have to work harder to get further faster.”

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