IT companies are being urged to build a strong relationship with the University to counteract the lack of human resources in the sector.

Investment Minister Austin Gatt called on IT companies to collaborate more with the University of Malta and the Malta College of Arts and Science and Technology to look for potential employees among the IT students.

"The private sector is somewhat ignoring cooperation with the University and MCAST. In assisting the University, you will be provided with the people you need," Dr Gatt told IT company owners.

A number of IT companies approach IT students, offering them a monthly salary and a contract binding them to work with the company after graduation.

Speaking during the roll-out of a three-year programme by the government IT agency MITA, Dr Gatt pointed out that the lack of human resources was one of the sector's main problems.

He listed plans to apply for about €26 million in EU funds for the government's e-learning system, adding that the new identity cards, with an electronic chip, should be introduced by next year.

Plus, responsibility for the electronic geographical mapping system of the Maltese Islands, which now falls under the planning authority, will be handed over to MITA.

MITA's 80 proposals for the next three years were listed by the agency's chairman Claudio Grech. These include establishing a professional national body for ICT that would have the dual role of acting as a self-regulating mechanism and setting up a code of conduct.

Permanent structures for chief information officers would be set up in ministries and the government's data centre would be updated, to become more efficient with a stronger storage capacity.

Moreover, MITA would work on a next-generation network in government entities together with the communications authority, Mr Grech said. The currently used e-government system would be totally overhauled and replaced by an updated version, 2.0, with a stronger focus on a citizen-needs approach instead of being portal-based.