The pharmaceutical industry is growing at a faster rate than graduates are leaving the University, leading to a lack of qualified technicians to fill increasing vacancies.
“I always say that in Malta there is no competition in the product area but there is competition over employees,” said Vittorio Giromini, plant manager at Siegfried Generics.
“Even if the government plans to enlarge its human portfolio, the pharmaceutical industry is growing faster.”
The Swiss pharmaceutical company would be expanding its Ħal Far plant through a further €7 million investment, bringing the total invested in Malta to €30 million, Mr Giromini added.
The company employed 80 people and the number was expected to rise by a further 20 when it completed its expansion project by 2013, he said. Work on the extension is scheduled to start in January.
Mr Giromini said the plan would double production to manufacture some 1.5 billion tablets a year. Last year, it had a revenue of €6.5 million. One of the greatest challenges was securing human resources, he said.
Building on this, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, who visited the factory with Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, said Malta was in the opposite situation of other countries that were battling with unemployment among graduates. Malta had a situation where the pharmaceutical industry, incentivised by the government, was growing at a faster rate than graduates were being produced at the University of Malta and the Malta College of Arts Science and Technology, he said.
Dr Gonzi encouraged more students to take on a career in the field.