The year 2013 witnessed the sustained growth of the Maltese information society with interesting developments that were not negatively affected by the general election and the subsequent change in government.
During a visit to Malta last September, Robert Madelin, director general for communications networks, content and technology of the European Commission, described Malta as a “strong player in the ICT field” which can provide a “strong lead across Europe” in the coming years. This appreciation doesn not mean there is no room for improvement, for despite the very interesting statistics regarding the adoption of technology, Malta continues to lag in research and innovation.
The latest statistics provided by the Malta Communications Authority (MCA) and the National Statistics Office reveal that the Maltese continue to invest in their online connectivity, and are increasingly more mobile at a time when there is a wider choice of cheaper communication services. However, on a more negative note, e-commerce by Maltese companies looks to be stagnant as the Maltese continue to prefer buying from foreign online stores rather than from local online ones, citing wider choice and cheaper prices.
The year started with the electoral campaign for the March 9 general election after the turmoil that beset the government led by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi last year.
Internet played an important part in the campaign, as social media, especially Facebook and You Tube, were abuzz with campaign-related activity. Indeed, the most prominent scandal uncovered during the campaign, related to the purchase of petroleum by Enemalta, was the result of e-mails recovered from the computer of trader George Farrugia which embroiled local politicians and businessmen alike.
The change in government brought by the election heralded some important changes in the administration of the Maltese ICT sector but the new government largely adopted a ‘steady as she goes’ attitude in terms of sustaining key sectors like i-gaming.
The new Ministry for the Economy, Enterprise and Small Businesses took over from the Ministry for Information, Transport and Communication, with a new Parliamentary Secretary, Edward Zammit Lewis, responsible for the ICT sector. The Malta Information Technology Agency has a new executive chairman, Anthony Sultana, who heads a new board of directors, while Edward Woods is the new chairman of the board at the MCA.
The new government immediately sought to draft a new strategy for the Maltese digital economy, which should be finalised in the coming weeks, while the Malta Council for Science and Technology is also finalising a new research and innovation strategy. Then in November, the government presented its Budget for 2014 with no major announcements related to technology, except for the launch of pilot projects for the introduction of tablets in Maltese primary schools, which was promised by the political parties in the electoral campaign.
Tablets indeed were the highlight of the year, not just because of this electoral promise, but because the adoption of tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices continued at a fast rate. The new Apple iPad Air, the Samsung Galaxy Gear watch and Google Glass attracted much attention locally, even though the latter is not yet available commercially.
Maltese companies made major announcements in terms of services. In October, Vodafone launched Malta’s first 4G (LTE) mobile communication service in a number of zones, promising significantly higher internet access speeds for mobile devices. Around the same time of the year, Melita successfully launched its new data centre in Madliena, launched its Wi-Fi anywhere services and a new facility to watch a number of TV channels from its line-up on smartphones and tablets. Go continued to invest in its fibre network and pushed for greater support from government in terms of the national fibre-to-the-home network, which the government is still working on.
The concept of ‘bring your own device’ (BYOD), where employees are encouraged to work on their lifestyle mobile devices, continued to establish itself locally, with local companies actively promoting such a concept. The concept of the ‘cloud’ also continued to take root and web-based services continue to take over from computer-installed ones. The University of Malta, for instance, has adopted Google’s online services for its staff and students.
The Maltese continued to make the most out of social media, not just during the electoral campaign and not just for personal use, but also for marketing by business organisations. With slightly more than half the local population on Facebook, this social networking site continued to dominate the landscape, while the use of You Tube continues to haunt network administrators who do not seem to be able to satisfy the need for more bandwidth for local users!
Statistics released by Facebook revealed that the Maltese government reported the highest number of profiles to Facebook when the population is taken into account; most probably, the fall-out of the electoral campaign when fake profiles sprouted up everywhere.
It seems the Maltese were not bothered much by the revelation of former contractor Edward Snowden on secret surveillance by the American National Security Agency on data handled by such companies as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple. The services of these American companies have a global reach and their services – incluidng Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook’s networking service, Apple’s devices and Microsoft’s e-mail – are very popular with the Maltese.