Electronic passport factory for Malta

Plans are in hand for De La Rue to open its second factory here, this time to manufacture electronic passports.

The £3.5 million (Lm2.2 million) investment is expected to take place in the Bulebel industrial estate, and will start operating in the beginning of next year, the government said last night.

De La Rue is the world's largest commercial security printer and papermaker, involved in the production of over 150 national currencies and a wide range of security documents such as passports, fiscal stamps, travellers cheques and authentication labels.

The new factory will be supplying innovative biometric passports being introduced in the US and the EU in the coming months as part of the fight against terrorism. The passports will have an electronic security chip, which will include personal information, such as the owner's DNA.

When contacted in London, De La Rue's head of corporate affairs, Mark Fearon, confirmed the plans but said the investment is yet to receive formal approval.

The factory would initially employ 50 workers but the number will increase in due course, Mr Fearon said. The government said the new facility would generate between 60 and 100 jobs. "We intend to start operating as soon as we can. We believe Malta provides extremely efficient facilities and has a great workforce," Mr Fearon added.

Mr Fearon was reluctant to give specific details on the operations of the new factory, though he said one of the intentions is to win orders from competing companies.

An internal announcement of the investment was made to the 500 employees at De La Rue's other factory in Bulebel, which is the group's largest overseas facility. The company set up shop in Malta in 1975.

Malta Enterprise last year extended a Lm1 million soft loan to De La Rue towards an investment of Lm1.5 million made by the company to upgrade its machinery.

De La Rue employs over 6,200 people across 31 countries and has an ongoing turnover of about £650 million (Lm408 million).

The company has a 20 per cent shareholding in Camelot, the operator of the UK National Lottery.

Government Investments Minister Austin Gatt said the investment confirmed that the government was right in pursuing its strategy of focusing on specialised sectors.

Prior to the De La Rue investment, the government had succeeded in attracting Lm752 million in investment over the past three years, with Malta Enterprise approving 175 projects.