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February 2001
Malta
Summary Report (1999 - 2000)

Overview Memo on Promotional Activities

A simple overview of the IS promotional activities in Malta reveals that such initiatives are created and delivered in their majority by the Government and its ministries, agencies and corporations. Until 1999 very little was being done by the private industry to promote the IS which in itself rests upon the use of ICT and therefore provides good commercial opportunities. However the launch of the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in 2000 has a rippling effect on private industry and new initiatives are being launched to exploit the new opportunities created by the liberalisation.

1. Organisational awareness aspects of the IS

Among the most active ministries in the promotion of IS there is the Ministry for Justice and Local Government, responsible for the networking of the 67 Local Councils in the Maltese Islands and other IS project at local level that link the central government to the local councils; the Ministry of Education and National Culture which is introducing computer and Internet access in schools; the Ministry for Social policy which is introducing an Internet-based system that is aimed at not only informing the public about the ministry’s services but also allowing people to apply online as well as facilitating and improving the staff’s work; and the Ministry for Transport and Communications which is responsible for the Communications Authority (formerly Telecoms Regulator). The latter is involved the co-ordination of Malta's participation in the EUMEDIS initiative of the European Commission.

With the launch of the White Paper on the Vision and Strategy for the Attainment of e-Government, the Government has launched the idea of e-government and one of the first results will the launch of a new Internet portal site to the various department and services in the Public Sector.

Among the other public entities which seem to take initiatives in the promotion of the IS are the Malta External Trade Corporation (METCO) (http://www.metco.com.mt) and the Institute for the Promotion of Small Enterprise (IPSE) (http://www.ipse.org.mt). METCO has become a focal point in Malta for Mediterranean IT Nodes in the field of WWW and Multimedia Technologies, while IPSE has the same role but for technologies in business processes. Both public bodies host promotional IS events and are actively looking forward for the EUMEDIS initiative.

The University of Malta (http://www.um.edu.mt) in February 1999 launched the Malta Internet Foundation (http://www.um.edu.mt/nic), an attempt to unite Internet end users and content providers and promote the positive development of Internet in Malta. However this foundation has not been very active.

From the private sector, EAN Malta (http://www.eanmalta.org.mt) stands out in the promotion of IS. This Maltese representative of the Brussels-based European Article Numbering Association is actively promoting electronic commerce, automatic data capture (ADC) and electronic data interchange (EDI) as valuable tools for Malta's commercial and industrial sectors in the light of the globalisation of international trade.

EAN Malta is promoting an awareness programme about ADC and EDI in the Middle East and the Mediterranean; it publishes its own magazine called 'Vision' about the Maltese IS; it is the focal point for Malta for Mediterranean IT Nodes in the field of electronic commerce, and it is one of the members of the Malta Committee of the Information Society Forum which is promoting the EUMEDIS programme in Malta.

The European Survey of the Information Society Phase II (ESIS-II) was officially launched in Malta with a national conference on the 1st of October 1999. The conference, besides serving as a communications event about ESIS II, provided guest speakers and the participants hailing from the public and the private sector with a platform to speak about their visions on the emergence of the Maltese Information Society. It was one of the few events ever held in Malta that discussed the role of ICT in the Maltese society.

The annual Information Technology and Telecommunications Fair was held at Naxxar every October is a showcase of some of the latest technologies and trends in the field, and an occasion to renew the debate about the use of ICT in the creation of the Maltese Information Society. http://www.maltatradefairs.com.mt

Conferences, seminar and workshops are organised regularly to focus on IS issues. E-commerce and e-government are the two most popular topics discussed. ‘Electronic commerce’ or ‘e-commerce’ became a popular buzz-word in 1999 and 2000, and two important conferences re-enforced the notion that e-commerce has finally becoming a national issue in Malta. The first conference was organised by Economic and Management Consultancy Sevices Ltd. (EMCS) of Malta on the 15th of October 1999, while the second one was organised by KPMG Consulting Limited on the 25th and 26th of November 1999. The KPMG conference attracted several foreign speakers who were joined by other local speakers and spoke at length about the pitfalls and the success stories of the emergence of e-commerce in Malta and the rest of the world. http://www.emcs.com.mt/ http://www.kpmg.com.mt

However, despite all this hype, e-commerce in Malta had a very slow start and the first truly operation e-shops were not opened before the last quarter of 2000.

A one-day conference examining the new proposed legislation on e-commerce, data protection and computer misuse was held on the 23rd of June 2000. The conference - "The New Cyber laws and Your Business" – discussed the White Paper about the Information Practices Legislative Framework. http://www.gftlex.com/

The publication of the White Paper about e-Government spurred a debate about the future of the administration of Malta and the role and services rendered by the public sector. Two major conferences discussed this topic in the space of a few weeks. The first one was a one-day conference organised by Deloitte & Touche, entitled: "Technology - Avoid it, embrace it or manage it?" and held at the Hilton Malta on September 27. The second one was organised by MITTS Ltd in November and presented the government’s vision and strategy for attaining e-Government.

One major conference that did not discuss e-commerce and e-government but equally an important issues, was "Access for all to Internet services at community level’, a two-day international conference held by the Council of Europe in collaboration with the Maltese Ministry of Education on the 2nd and 3rd November 1999. The conference brought together over 50 foreign and local experts who discussed the need of providing universal Internet access to everyone in the community. It served also as a follow-up to the Council's adoption on 9 September 1999 of a Recommendation urging member states to make the new communications and information services more easily available to citizens by providing public access points at local level. http://www.coe.fr/cp/99/568a%2899%29.htm

IS issues are being often mentioned and discussed during conferences and meetings of constituted bodies and professional organisations. The issues of globalisation, e-commerce and the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector came to the fore at the annual conference held by the Malta Federation of Industry on the 16th of February 2000 with the theme "The Maltese Economy: Realities and Opportunities". During the conference, the Minister for Finance, the Minister for Economic Services, top-officials from several ICT companies and industry analysts expressed their worries, hopes and wishes for the telecommunications sector. http://www.foi.org.mt

Then the local benefits and applications of electronic commerce were discussed during the annual engineering conference organised by the Malta Chamber of Professional Engineers on the 29th of April 2000. The main aim of this conference was be to provide participants with a better under-standing of how the World Wide Web is reinventing the way people do business, with particular emphasis on technical aspects.

The liberalisation of the telecommunications sector was the main theme of a two-day conference held on the 18th and the 19th of May 2000. It was organised by the Zimmerman House Group and addressed by key figures in the sector, including the Minister for Communications, the highest officials of the service providers and the Maltese business and industry, and foreign speakers. The issue of liberalisation was hotly debated and widely reported in the local media.

2. IS national strategies and action plans

The main national strategies and action plans are:

One of the most important documents for the Maltese Government (http://www.magnet.mt) in the creation of the Information Society is the Information Systems Strategic Plan (ISSP). The current one was issued in October 1998, to be implemented in the period 1999-2001. The ISSP has the primary objective to establish a direction for further information systems investment within the Public Service for the above-mentioned period. Unfortunately this is not a public document.

In August 1999 the Government formally launched the Central Information Management Unit (CIMU) to prepare the strategy for the use of IT in the Public Service and oversee its implementation. It gained overall responsibility for the government's ICT networks.

Until September 1998 there was the National Commission for Information Technology (NCIT) (http://www.ncit.org.mt) which had the task, among other things, to promote the IS, promote the effective use of IT in Maltese organisations, promote the use of IT to enhance Government Information and Services, and act as an advisor to the Government and co-ordinate IS initiatives in Malta. This is most likely to be replaced by the Information Society and Economy Commission. The Minister for Justice and Local Government announced that a recommendation had been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers to set up such a Commission, which would be empowered to act as the catalyst to transform the island into an information society and economy.

The Employment and Training Corporation (ETC) published in March 2000 a draft national plan for an Information Technology Literate Workforce. It proposes the setting up of evening community centres in state schools that already have personal computers, offering free Internet access to citizens who still do not have the means for such personal access. The strategy identified the main segments of the workforce that would be affected. The ETC is the government's agency for employment.

The Information Practices Legislative Framework are three important bills that cover e-commerce, data protection and computer misuse. The first two bills are being discussed in Parliament. When all three bills are approved they will provide the necessary legal foundation to promote e-commerce in Malta.

The Malta Communications Authority Act, 2000, contains the government’s plan for the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in Malta. The plan has been widely debated in the Maltese media and in several conferences and meetings since it is going to re-draw the landscape, in line with the EU’s Acquis Communautaire. The liberalisation will have the following time frame:

The Maltese government has come up with a policy to allow genuine online betting service companies to operate out of Malta. A number of international on-line betting companies have applied for such a license, including Stanley Leisure Gaming Group. The government is actively encouraging companies to come over after that towards the end of 1999 various companies had approached the government with a view to being granted a licence to operate from Malta. Licences will only be granted to companies that are already licensed in recognised jurisdictions and will only cover fixed odds sporting events. Companies operating cyber casinos or computer-generated games will not be given licences.

3. Information Content stimulation

One of the largest projects is the creation of a value added digital network between the 67 Local Councils in the Maltese Islands, as first step towards the creation of e-Government. The Local Councils will provide a one-stop shop for various services from government departments.

The EUMEDIS initiative is indeed getting a lot of attention in Malta and a there is a concerted effort by various parties, including EAN, METCO, IPSE and the Ministry for Transport and Communications, to create awareness about its benefits to the local and regional IS. Interested parties are identifying potential partners locally and abroad.

The House of Representatives and the Maltese Laws are now accessible on the Internet. The Maltese Parliament http://parliament.magnet.mt has launched its website with direct access to the archives of debates, parliamentary questions, agendas and other documentation pertaining to the current legislature. A search facility makes the retrieval of information much easier and the archives of other legislatures. The Ministry for Justice is publishing all the laws and the subsidiary laws of Malta on its new website http://justice.magnet.mt

Content for and from schools in Malta should get a boost with the introduction of Internet access in public schools as from 2001. An agreement was signed in November between MITTS and the Department of Education for this service that will provide universal access by 2004.

EAN Malta has launched an on-line database of bar codes, bar coding standards and other information about bar-coding technologies. The searchable tool is available on an Internet website (http://www.ean.business-line.com/)

Content stimulation is Malta is not strong as far incentives are concerned. The Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) launched a "Best Malta Web Page Competition", which aims to encourage local and foreign Internet users to develop and maintain their own Malta web page. The objective of this initiative is to gain wider visibility and enhance the profile of Malta on the Internet. http://www.visitmalta.com/bestsite/

The year 2000 saw the number of Internet portals; e-commerce sites and general information sites increase substantially in size and quality. The first Internet portal based in Malta – www.di-ve.com - was launched in February to stimulate Maltese content on the Internet. Then www.aboutmalta.com was launched with the aim of being the on-line guide to everything Maltese. In the future it would be transformed into the first Maltese online encyclopaedia. The major newspapers provide an on-line edition while the major radio stations are webcasting their content live.

In December 2000 nine local Internet Service Providers agreed to set-up a high-speed ATM-based Internet backbone and share resources to facilitate access to local content. Other ISPs were invited to join.

4. Other tools for promoting the IS Society

The scare of the Millennium Bug was an ideal opportunity to create awareness about how much our society depends on the use of ICT. Challenge 2000 (http://www.challenge2000.magnet.mt) was the government-appointed task force aimed at the Y2K or 'Millennium Bug' problem.

Two of the largest IT companies in the world chose Malta to hold one of their events. Microsoft’s OpenDoor Series 2000, one of the biggest road shows in the Middle East, kicked-off in Malta at the end of November 1999 with a two-day seminar covering a wide range of Microsoft technologies. The road show, which includes the participation of industry giants 3Com and Dell, covered 12 cities in 10 different countries. The IBM organised the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Winning Team Forum in Malta in March. It is organised on a regular basis by IBM for the each region as a thank you to the highest achievers among its employees.

www.travel.net is a free-to-air TV channel which anyone in Europe, the Mediterranean region and the Middle East can receive either via satellite or cable reception. The company is based in Malta. The channel provides viewers with up-to-date travel information on numerous destinations around the world. If someone is interested in a tour, he can then make a booking through the website at www.wwwtravel.net.

EAN Malta, the Maltese bar-coding and electronic business standards organisation, and the Graduate School of Business of Grenoble (ESC Grenoble), France, signed an international co-operation agreement setting up a Malta centre to run MBA courses in electronic business, offering a degree by ESC Grenoble. A two-year part-time degree course has already been designed for Maltese students. ESC Grenoble is considered as one of Europe’s leading graduate schools in the business/commercial sector. It made a partnership with IBM to offer Europe’s first e-business MBA.

5. Interesting innovative actions/initiatives

The Maltese National Authority for bar coding and e-business, EAN Malta, is on the forefront in the promotion of IS. For the first time it launched the National Bar coding Standards. There was a pressing need for these standards as more and more companies are exploiting the benefits of using barcodes and automatic data capture technologies, such as infrared barcode scanners at their Point of Sale (POS). http://wwww.eanmalta.org.mt

Another initiative by EAN Malta is an Internet-based database of bar-coded products produces and/or packaged in Malta accessible to the general public. This database will be merged into the EAN International Global Database containing similar information around the world.

The Maltese government launched its official version of Malta's laws on compact disc. The CD-Rom covered a staggering 16,000 pages. The Statute Law Revision Act binds the government to publish the official version of Malta's laws every 10 years. In fact, Malta's laws were last published in 1990. The CD, which is the first time the laws are being launched in such a format, includes all the primary legislation updated up till March 1, 2000. It was the government's intention to have all 276 chapters updated on CD in the future, the minister said. This CD-ROM is complementary to the website that provides access to the same legislation on-line.

Youthnet 2000 project, by the Secretariat for Youth in the Ministry for Education, was launched with the aim of creating a network of information and communication between the various youth organisations by means of tools such as computers and the Internet. Various local IT companies and ISPs are sponsoring the project.

Women who intend to return to the job market have an excellent opportunity of qualifying themselves for a job in the IT industry as the Malta Development Corporation and the Employment and Training Corporation are launching the National Computing Centre (NCC) International Diploma Computer Studies Course.


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.

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