The ICT industry in Malta has weathered the storm and a lot of business organisations today realise that expenditure on ICT is no longer a cost but an investment.

This is the main message that came out of a business seminar organised by the Malta Business Bureau in collaboration with the IT business section of the Malta Chamber last week and which was addressed by prominent speakers in the local and international ICT industry.

The keynote was delivered by Herbert Rastbichler, managing director and vice- president enterprise business for HP in Central and Eastern Europe, which includes Malta.

Keith Fearne, chairman of the IT business section, Malta Chamber, moderated a discussion panel composed of Mr Rastbichler, Andreas Wais, director enterprise services for HP for European emerging markets, and Claudio Grech, chairman of the Malta Information Technology Agency.

Though the title of the event was Managing ICT Investments In Challenging Times, the discussion focused much on creating opportunities for investments in challenging times by investing in ICT.

Mr Fearne commented that in these challenging times the ICT industry has managed to remain quite profitable and retain its most important element - its human resources.

"This has been a major achievement of the ICT industry and the most interesting development we have seen in the past 18 months is that there is a shift in mentality from seeing ICT as a cost to ICT as an enabler," he said.

This was confirmed by interventions from the floor, composed mainly of ICT executives from top local businesses and ICT companies.

Claudio Grech sees another important factor that led the local ICT industry to "weather the storm".

"Over the past decade there was a consistent vision working towards a notion that ICT is not a cost but an investment. At a time when the government is strictly controlling its expenses, the government's investment in ICT is increasing. ICT is the only area where the government finds little problems to spend on. The government and industry together have brought a revolution," claimed Mr Grech.

"There is still room for growth for ICT as a sector. We need more capital investment in the knowledge-based economy rather than traditional fields such as property. It's up to the private sector to make this leap. We need to convince business owners that investment in transformation through ICT tools will reap dividends, maybe not tomorrow but eventually yes. We are already reaping some dividends now of what we invested in over the past decade."

Andreas Wais confirmed the positive trends in the ICT industry while other sectors of the economy are going through difficult times, and explained how businesses are not trying to avoid spending on ICT but rather searching for solutions that maximise the returns on the money they spend. Outsources of ICT services is one of the most accepted options now.

i-Tech had the opportunity to meet Mr Rastbichler on the side of the event, an opportunity to explain further some of the interesting points he raised in his keynote earlier in the morning.

"Companies run into trouble because they don't re-invent themselves. ICT can be a driver for change," he told i-Tech when explaining the concept of so-called "disruptive change".

"Digital photography is a classic example in terms of technology disruption. It killed a whole industry and no one today buys film. Kodak was a victim of this.

"You can have new players that appear out of nowhere and become at threat to your business. Technology allows you to address new and different customers. Google, Amazon, eBay are good example of this. They reached out to customers in a different way. Until a few years ago no one considered buying on the web."

When i-Tech asked the HP executive about how businesses should approach ICT once we are out of the economic downturn, Mr Rastbichler replied: "You learn a lot during a downturn and you can use this to build one and continue to expand when you are out of it. You learn things you can use in good times as well."

Mr Rastbichler noted the strong presence of the i-gaming industry in Malta and praised Malta's vision.

"Malta may not have a lot of resources but it has one important resource - the brains of the people - and this is the future of the country. Malta has a vision and this is great if done correctly."

However, there is still room for improvement.

"Malta is just one of over 20 countries in my region and it compares very well with the others in terms of infrastructure. A lot has been already done but you still need to make internet broadband more accessible. You need to invest more in fibre optic access. Malta needs this to take the opportunities in the globalised world."

Asked about the relationship between HP and Maltese businesses, Mr Rastbichler expressed his satisfaction at how HP is developing its relationship with its partners in the country.

"We want to support Maltese companies that look forward. We want to give a meaningful contribution and not just sell machines. We want to support meaningful innovation.

"PCs and printers are just 40 per cent of what we do. We provide all ICT services needed as a result of over 30 acquisitions and we are going further.

"We are developing specific solutions for the healthcare sector for example, where we have a strong presence in the United States and some European countries.

"We also develop Sabre, one of the most widely used travel systems in the world. We are always developing new capabilities," he concluded.