It’s difficult to forecast events in the digital world as things change and develop very quickly – Malta is no exception and we have to keep this in mind in our annual forecast.

Mobile operators are expected to continue planning the launch of a 4G network based on LTE

There is little we can do but recognise that the March 9 general election is the most important local event this year – far from just being a political event, it will have a strong bearing on ICT in Malta, whatever the outcome.

If the PN is returned to power, there will be a new minister for education and a new minister for communications since both Dolores Cristina and Austin Gatt have already announced they are not running.

A new minister, even if the same party is returned to government, is a new broom and does bring changes in attitude and direction, even though these are within a framework of an electoral programme and Cabinet decisions.

If the Labour Party wins the election, then it’s a completely new government. This does not necessarily mean a 180-degree turn in policies related to ICT. Indeed, the financial services sector and the ICT industry are some of the few areas where both major political parties truly converge.

We know what the PN has done in recent years to sustain the creation of the Maltese information society, the Labour Party has already expressed its commitment to sustain and carry its momentum forward. In recent months, PL leader Joseph Muscat publicly declared that his party will continue to support Smart City Malta and the igaming industry among others, as part of the party’s strategy to create sustainable and better jobs.

Dr Muscat has reiterated that a new Labour government would retain the positive initiatives of the 2013 Budget, which was defeated in December. These include funding for the budding digital games industry, the new biosciences centre in San Ġwann and the new interactive science centre in Bighi.

Within this framework we should expect an evolution, rather a revolution, of Malta’s ICT strategy.

A new government would have to decide on some initiatives from the previous one. For example, it will have to decide on the digital rights presented for discussion in a White Paper last October. Feedback was collected until the end of November. This exercise was prompted by vociferous protests in Malta, just like the rest of the world, against ACTA earlier in 2012.

The PL was totally against ACTA, which was signed by the Maltese Government without any public announcement a few weeks before the protests.

Another initiative was the call for expression of interest early this year for the creation of a national fiber-optic network to provide very fast internet access directly to homes and offices. Several companies and consortia expressed an interest but the Government made no public announcements since then. Surely a new government would have to tackle this very important strategic issue that has economic repercussions.

A change in government could bring changes not in the direction but rather to how things are done and the people doing it. The Malta Information Technology Agency could, once again, be the subject of a thorough review, given that its operations, and especially its former chairman Claudio Grech, were criticised by the Labour Opposition on more than once occasion. One thorny issue has always been that of ID cards. New digital ID cards to replace those expired for years were promised over and over again throughout the years but were never rolled out

The executive chairman of the Malta Communications Authority Philip Micallef resigned in December in the wake of a career move abroad. Lawyer Antonio Ghio was appointed chairman just a few days before the announcement of the election date. A new government would have either to confirm Dr Ghio or appoint a new chairman.

Away from the political battlefield, 2013 promises to be another eventful year in terms of technological developments. We expect mobile devices to continue to penetrate our daily lives, with smartphones and tablets taking over from the bulky desktop and laptop computers.

Maltese mobile operators are expected to continue planning the next important leap: launching a 4G network based on LTE. In the case of Melita, rather than LTE it is expected to invest in Wi-Fi hotspots around the country for data access on mobile devices.

The mobile device landscape will continue to be dominated by Apple with iOS and Google with Android. Microsoft will try to make a dent with its new Windows Phone 8 while Blackberry continues to slide into oblivion.

Speaking of Microsoft, its new innovation centre should be inaugurated at MIA Skyparks Business Centre in February.

Digital games development is expected to continue and grow further, irrespective of who is in government. The same goes for cloud computing, where a slow transformation is gaining momentum locally.

In terms of social media, take-up by local organisations and businesses as a marketing and communications medium is expected to increase, pari passu with the steady increase in e-commerce services.

This year promises to be another exciting one in terms of technology-related developments in Malta, especially developments we are not expecting at all.

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