ESIS extension / Key Person Contacts and Organisations / Malta / Master Report

The Maltese Islands have no natural resources, and Government has had to base its economy on activities that utilise human resources such as tourism, offshore banking, Freeport, trans-shipment and the building and repair of ships. With this in mind Malta's telecommunications operator had to give high priority to provide an efficient system for local and overseas telecommunications services.

The Maltese economy is service oriented with tourism as the key economic sector, which also impacts on agriculture and fisheries, food and beverage, wholesale and retail and banking.

Prior to 1975, telecommunication services were provided by the Post and Telephones (P&T) Department, an integral part of Government. Telemalta Corporation was a fully Government owned parastatal organization set up by an Act of Parliament on the 24 June 1975 to provide and operate all telecommunication services in Malta including domestic and international telecommunications as well as the maritime radio service. At this point the Post and Telecommunications functions have been separated. Telemalta also assumed the function of a regulatory as has been the case in other countries at the time.

Maltacom p.l.c. was constituted on 31 December 1997 with the purpose of replacing Telemalta Corporation being the national telecommunications service provider. The shareholders of Maltacom p.l.c. are the Government of Malta and the Malta Government Investments Limited.

Maltacom went public in June of 1998 and the Company's shares were traded for the first time at the Malta Stock Exchange on 23 June 1998. The Government has sold 37 per cent of its shareholding in the Company. Three per cent were held collectively through an employees foundation funded through an interest free long term Government loan. Twenty per cent of the shares were sold in Malta and the remaining 17% were sold abroad and are traded at the London Stock Exchange.

By virtue of the Telecommunications (Regulation) Act, 1997 and in particular, in accordance with Section 40 of the said Act, the business of Telemalta Corporation, including all the assets and liabilities thereof have been transferred to and vest in Maltacom p.l.c. Legal Notice 237 of 1997 repealed the Telemalta Corporation Act, 1975 yet licenses issued under it remained in force. Maltacom has a monopoly until 2010 as a provider of fixed telephony and other selected services with a potential for rapid growth.

Cable Television is provided by Melita Cable T.V., a locally registered joint venture between Maltese and US interests. Cellular mobile telephony is provided by Vodafone (Malta) Ltd. The company, which has an exclusive licence until 2010, commenced operations through an ETACS analogue network in 1990 and introduced GSM service in mid-1997. Alphanumeric Paging on a national basis is provided by Telepage Ltd. Internet service is liberalised whilst Maltacom fully owns Terranet Ltd., one of the island's major Internet Service Providers (ISP), which provides this service.

Originally Malta Information & Training Services Ltd. (MITTS) was set up as a Maltese Government IT agency, to act as an agent for change in the public service.

MITTS is a limited liability company, external to public administration, and plays a crucial role in the Government's exercise of its overall responsibility for promoting business efficiency and value for money - specifically in the effective, efficient, economic development and use of information systems in support of the business of Government. The company's stance towards government departments conforms to Government's overall strategy for the Civil Service of encouraging a culture of delegation, accountability and full ownership of delivered systems.

The main research institution that focuses on information society (IS) technologies on the island is the University of Malta. Its contribution to the information society stems from a range of related courses dealing with different facets of computer and communication technologies as well as their subsequent application. The main contributions from a technological view point comes from the departments of communications and computer engineering, computer science and artificial intelligence and computer information systems.

Malta has been participating in the Euromed Information Society Action Plan Steering Committee since its inception by Prof. F. Aldana during the meeting of Ministers held in Rome in 1997. The work done by this committee has led to the allocation of substantial funds by the European Commission for projects related to the information society in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

The IT Nodes initiative in Malta is gaining momentum with four out of five domains initiating some form of related training. Each domain is being led by organisations such as the EAN (Malta), a joint initiative between the Federation of Industries (FOI) and the Association of Retailers and Traders (GRTU), Malta External Trade Corporation (METCO), Institute for the Promotion of Small Enterprise (IPSE) and the University of Malta.

Malta is also participating in the Information Society Forum and the EC Consultative Committee, which have just been launched some weeks ago.

Please note that this report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors.
It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission, nor does the Commission accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein.
The ESIS Team of contractors welcomes any additional information or corrections.