Malta's ICT ambitions 'nearing realisation'

Malta's ambition to become a regional ICT centre of excellence has never been nearer its realisation and it will soon be able to grow independently of government intervention, Investment Industry and Information Technology Minister Austin Gatt said yesterday.

Dr Gatt, who was addressing a banking technology conference of FIM Business Solutions at Le Meridien, St Julians, said tourism was a priority area.

The government was working to develop a portal that would offer all the services that were needed by visitors during their stay, ranging from the booking of flights and hotels to car hire and visits to heritage sites.

A tourist planning a visit would be able to complete all transactions prior to arrival from one interface. This would link together all the back-end systems that have already been developed, albeit in a sporadic fashion - which often frustrated the independent traveller.

Referring to the banking sector, Dr Gatt said there was much room for growth in the take-up of electronic banking services as last year only 16 per cent of the Maltese used online banking.

This figure, however, had to be seen in the context of the rather high level of availability of traditional over-the-counter services here and also in the context of the relative rate of growth in the short time these services have been available.

In the case of businesses, he added, take-up had been more encouraging and perhaps this was a better indicator of the level of use of these services.

Nearly 60 per cent of companies employing more than 10 people used internet banking last year. The trend was less strong in micro-enterprises of which only 31 per cent use internet banking, said the minister.