The Government is planning to boost the online gaming and creative industries and will be setting up an agency to market Malta’s potential.

Following a visit to the offices of NeoGames Ltd – an Israeli gaming company based in Sliema – Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that the size of the sector had more than doubled in the past five years and was now offering thousands of hi-tech jobs to both Maltese and foreigners.

He said that to continue building on the success of the industry, the Government would establish an agency dedicated to the sector, on the same lines as Finance Malta, which promotes the financial sector.

Dr Gonzi said it would be set up together with the private sector and would also work with the education sector to have high-level specialised courses that would attract students from abroad.

“We will regulate the new market of ‘games of skill and prize’ and be among the first on a global level in this area. We shall also increase incentives to attract more companies in mobile gaming,” the Prime Minister said.

He said that hundreds of companies in the online gaming business had set up in Malta in the recent years, the sector now employing about 7,000 people, up from 3,000 in 2008.

NeoGames’s CEO, Ilan Rosen, said that the company started in Malta five years ago with only two employees and was now working in state-of-the-art offices and employing 90 workers. He said that Malta offered very attractive conditions including favourable taxation benefits and a flexible workforce with a good language knowledge base.

The company, which operates in another three countries (Denmark, Belgium and Italy) planned to continue to expand and making Malta its main base of operations.

Dr Gonzi said that the Government intends to further boost the creative industry to attract more investment from companies specialising in developing digital games.

He said that a fund would be set up to provide start-up grants and capital of between €25,000 and €50,000 for start-ups in the digital gaming industry.