The island state of Malta has an impressive roll call of multi-nationals with ICT operations based there.
As an island in the Mediterranean Sea, Malta is not the first place you might think of as a centre for a the ICT sector, but this small EU state has successfully developed a notable presence in the global market, and is, “One of the World’s best small economies”, according to the World Market Research Centre.
The ICT industry in Malta is represented by more than 250 companies, employing around 6,000 staff. These include multinationals such as Microsoft, CISCO, Crimsonwing, Vodafone, Siemens, Oracle, and HSBC. The Government of Malta is in strategic alliances with CISCO, HP, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and SAP.
The story of ICT in Malta has progressed to membership of I-NEC – an elite group of ICT locations. Malta was also chosen by the developers of Dubai’s Internet City for the setting up of SmartCity Malta, an IT village. The island hosts a full range of inbound and outbound call centre services, including e-commerce support and HSBC inbound calls from high value customers in UK and EU.
According company decision-makers, the attractions of Malta to foreign ICT and call centre investors seem to be multifarious – from skills and comparatively low labour and office costs, to its geographical position and languages, Malta seems to have a unique set of selling points.
Benefits of Malta as a centre for IT include its location. It is within easy reach of other European capitals, with direct flights to 37 major centres (flying times 2 ½ hours and less). It is also a point of access for North African and Middle East markets for IT consulting, whilst a favourable business environment comes in part from Malta’s membership of Euro-zone and EU regulatory environment; it has a stable economic, industrial and political environment.
Strong linguistic capabilities, with English as the official language for business and commerce - accent free and with knowledge of colloquialisms – is a great advantage for Malta’s ICT call centres. Italian-, French- and German-speaking personnel are also widely available.
Established as an ICT and call centre hub since the 1990s, Malta has a well-developed telecommunications infrastructure with large bandwidth and digital networks. Internet connections are based on wireless technology such as EDGE and 3.5G as well as wired technology such as DSL, cable and fibre connectivity.
For further information on ICT in Malta, contact Chris Galea, PR & Media Manager at Malta Enterprise, on +356 2542 3289.
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