Survey highlights importance of English, euro for investment

Ernst & Young's Malta Attractiveness Survey 2009 has highlighted the importance of English as well as the euro in making Malta attractive for foreign investment.

The survey, launched yesterday, brings together the views of top executives of 101 foreign-owned companies in Malta and explores various aspects of Malta's investment attractiveness for these companies to retain, expand or develop their activities in Malta.

The level of English of the country's workforce was chosen by 86 per cent of respondents as being attractive for investment, followed by the productivity of human resources (81 per cent), the euro as the national currency (76 per cent), the quality of life as it relates to the social (69 per cent) and physical (68 per cent) environments, the telecommunications infrastructure (67 per cent), the political environment (66 per cent), the corporate tax rate (66 per cent), employees' skills (65 per cent), Malta's geographical position (65 per cent), leisure activities (63 per cent), the legislative environment (61 per cent) labour costs (61 per cent) and fical incentives and support from the government (58 per cent).

The respondents also assessed the most important investment criteria for companies to expand, develop or retain their activities in Malta with the availability of human resources (50 per cent) topping the list. This was followed by fiscal incentives and support measures from the government (43 per cent), the corporate tax rate (41 per cent), the legislative environment (29 per cent), human resources skills (28 per cent) and the euro as the national currency (28 per cent).

The criteria that are perceived as having improved over the last year include the telecommunications infrastructure (32 per cent), air transport links (24 per cent), the euro as the national currency (23 per cent), air transport costs (23 per cent), telecommunications costs (22 per cent) and the availability of human resources (21 per cent).

Bureaucracy (70 per cent) and fiscal incentives (64 per cent) were the two top suggestions by the executives as to how the government could improve Malta's attractiveness. These were followed by education and training (27 per cent), transport (25 per cent), marketing Malta (22 per cent), a clean and healthy environment (22 per cent0 and energy supply and costs (18 per cent).

Seventy-five per cent of the shareholders of the companies surveyed resided within the EU.

The companies were selected to reflect different sizes and industries. The companies participating in the survey employ around 12,500 people and their turnover varied from less than €2 million to more than €35 million. Half of the companies in the survey were set up in Malta after 2000.

Data was gathered through fieldwork that was carried out between March and April.