The presence of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei in Malta will lead to “some form of future investment”, but the government cannot be expected to insist investors announce their plans to the public, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said.

"Huawei did not come to Malta to sunbathe. They came here to do business."

Addressing a press conference this afternoon, Prof. Scicluna said companies such as Microsoft had not announced how much they would generate in the Maltese economy when they first set up on the island.

“We can’t scare away investment. We need to welcome it with open arms, no matter what it is. When it comes to Huawei, even just setting up an office is a good sign,” he said.

rof. Scicluna said Malta was entering a new era of industry. The 1990s, he said, had seen the rise of the local financial services industry and the early 2000s had seen igaming being set up.

The government was now focusing on attracting education and healthcare companies. The government was also keen on helping Maltese businesses infiltrate new economies.

Fresh from a trip to Ethiopia, Prof. Scicluna said local businessmen were looking to Africa to set up shop.

“We had a lot of businesses that had flourished in Libya. Now we are seeing movement in countries such as Kenya and Sudan were a lot of our services industries can do very well,” he said.

Greece

Turning to the situation in Greece, Prof. Scicluna said the conditions being imposed on the economically troubled state were not too different from those in Malta.

“We aren’t talking anything out of this world. The interest rate they will pay is the same we are paying,” he said.

Prof. Scicluna said the measures would be difficult to implement in Greece because the country was in a catastrophic state, but it had to follow this “medicine” if it wanted to survive.

“Obviously, when you have got used to operating with monopolies people won’t like a lot of these measures. That makes this a politically difficult situation for the Greek government to sell to its voters, but it is the right thing to do,” he said.