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.”
TAX-NEWS.COM
Free Tax-News Feed