Spending on research and development in Malta has gone up from €24 million a decade ago to €64 million last year, according to data published yesterday by the EU’s statistics office.

However, Malta still ranks among the 10 EU member states with the lowest expenditure as a percentage of GDP, which last year stood at 0.85 per cent, up from 0.49 per cent in 2003.

Enterprise was the largest contributor in Malta last year, accounting for 54 per cent of the total spending on R&D, followed by the higher education sector (36 per cent) and the government sector (10 per cent).

In 2013 the European average stood at 2.02 per cent of GDP, with Finland topping the list (3.32 per cent) followed closely by Sweden and Denmark. Romania (0.39 per cent) was at the bottom of the table, accompanied by a host of other Eastern European countries and Malta.

Globally, the EU still lags behind South Korea, Japan and the United States.

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