World Report

Boosts in education and technical skills are key as Malta develops into an ICT centre of excellence

Maltacom offers national and international services as well as IT business solutions.

t is one of the objectives of the EU to turn Europe into a major knowledge-based economy. Malta, perhaps because of its island status and the fact that it is the smallest of the member nations, has a long-established policy of improving its communications systems and educating all of its citizens to high standards. As a result, the country is at the forefront of ICT expertise and application, and is well on its way to becoming one of the major European centres of IT excellence.

The Ministry of Education has been working on all fronts to encourage higher levels of technical skills and ICT knowledge among the population. The fast-track development of Malta’s communications infrastructure has made the Maltese people more open to new ideas and prepared to take more risks, says Minister of Education Dr Louis Galea, a factor which helps to keep the country at the cutting edge of technology.

Given the importance of human resources to the country’s economy, significant investment is being made to boost and develop education. At the compulsory education level, the “Tomorrow’s School” project aims to renovate and refurbish all public schools to the same high standards. In higher education, the new Malta College of Arts and Technology (MCAST) will spearhead the ministry’s objective of networking with other educational systems and institutions. “Each of MCAST’s ten institutes must have two types of partnerships: one with a major industry in the field of its specialty, and another with a foreign college that specialises in the same area,” says the minister.

The idea behind the plan is that the institute will be interacting by bringing over foreign lecturers, allowing student exchanges and other similar methods of creating mutual interaction. This broadened perspective, explains Dr Galea, exposes Malta to a larger market, which in turn will boost development.

However, none of this would be possible without the existence of a solid communications system. This is where soon-to-be privatised telecoms company Maltacom fits in. “Maltacom is a very important plank in our economic platform. It provides the life blood for our new activities,” says Sonny Portelli, Maltacom chairman. All economic activities, from the growing financial services sector to the all-important tourism industry, rely on the most up-to-date and efficient telecoms environment.

Louis Galea
Minister of Education

‘Our college will have partnerships with specialized foreign schools’

“We are no longer in the business of just supplying voice communication,” says Mr Portelli. Maltacom’s future revenue generators will be other types of services such as 3G, UMTS and all other technological developments in interactive communication, including video and digital television.

Maltacom stands to benefit even further from Malta’s strategic geo-political location. “We could become a very important hub for communications for both the north and the south. A huge amount of development will be taking place to our south. There has to be a north-south dialogue and most of that dialogue will have to be carried over somebody’s wires,” adds the chairman.

Maltacom is one of the last of the Western European telecommunication firms to go into complete private ownership, but Mr Portelli foresees no disadvantage whatsoever in this move (see interview, page 8). Tomorrow’s Maltacom, he believes, will be a fully converged group driven by IP-empowered technology, managed by ICT specialists, and delivering the highest standards of service and affordable rates. Any telecoms executive will have the same vision, and whoever steps into the government’s shoes will be speaking the same language.