Maltese businesses want the new vision of ICT in the European Union to have a strong focus on economic growth and productivity gains from ICT usage, as well as the benefits of innovation. The authorities should only act as regulators and promoters but public-private partnerships are important.

This emerges from a report compiled by the Malta Business Bureau and based on a questionnaire organised with the ICT Trade Section of the Malta Chamber of Commerce Enterprise and Industry. This survey, with carefully selected and targeted questions, replicated a questionnaire by the European Commission on the post-i2010 ICT strategy (2010-2015) for the EU.

The questionnaire was aimed at eliciting the ideas of this specific sector to reflect the issues that are most relevant to Maltese ICT-related business.

Founded in October 1996, The Malta Business Bureau represents the Malta Chamber of Commerce Enterprise and Industry and the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association in Brussels and Malta, by liaising directly with European and local counterparts.

The MBB report says one of the challenges is to build a clear rationale for ICT policies, including evidence of the economic and social impact, and reinforcing the impact of the open method of coordination through strengthened benchmarking, especially at strategy-planning phase involving initiatives stretched on a span of years.

"The most common opinion as to what could be the overall visionary focus for the post-I2010 strategy is to have a vision with a strong focus on desired end results such as economic growth, productivity gains from ICT usage, and impact on the economy through innovation.

"However, it is also deemed important to have the desired end results broken down into more concrete and measurable targets such as objectives on broadband coverage, investments in digital infrastructure and other similar matters such as e-skills. The relative erosion in price and labour competitiveness in the EU services industries can be offset, in part, through a better harnessing of the productivity potential."

The report acknowledges the fact that today internet users spend more and more time using new online services which involve considerable disclosure of personal data. Therefore there is a need to strike a balance between encouraging the best use of innovative services and their associated risks with regards to privacy and security. From a market development perspective, the potential for public-private partnerships in the ICT industry remains to-date largely untapped.

"However, the involvement of public authorities should be limited to regulatory functions. The concern of public authorities should only be in the most passive manner possible, such as ensuring that regulation foresees decent returns of private enterprise investments, facilitating the use of ducts and making sure that the new infrastructure works are performed with this in mind," the report insists.

Other key areas which policy makers should develop in order to enhance and promote the growth of internet services are the subject-matter of open standards, the ability to have an end-to-end connectivity that is the ability to access any point from any point, and to have the possibility of interoperability and/or portability of services. Net neutrality is also deemed an important issue.

In addition, it is also suggested that a policy on media auctioning and effective forced payment of TV channels that are not of interest to the end user should be endorsed. Clearly the development of new digital market models requires new regulatory responses.

As a result and in relation to the above arguments, the EU should definitely develop and adopt differentiated policies based on the different needs of users, as for example SMEs, large businesses, individual users and so on.

Maltese businesses seem to be critical of the take-up of online services and their benefits in Europe.

"The promised benefits of e-government, e-learning and e-health have not yet been fully exploited. Take up of online public services is still too low. While citizens are becoming more experienced of and exposed to web services, there is a gap between the public and the commercial worlds in terms of fulfilling consumers' expectations."

In order to increase the popularity of such services it is advisable to strengthen multichannel delivery, increase awareness through marketing, and strengthen the security of such services, while improving the accessibility and usability of online systems.

"However, in order to improve access and participation for everyone, there is a need for a common European understanding on quality delivery of ICT-enabled public services. This could be achieved through three possible methods, by having a user charter, common guidelines or common minimum standards."

For the European digital market to become successful there is a need to enhance consumer confidence in online business transactions. This could be achieved through novel regulatory measures, with self-regulation nonetheless remaining the best and preferred option for the ICT industry. The European Commission has a role to play in developing best-practice codes of conduct and through the diffusion of EU-wide trustmarks enhancing the consumer confidence on global warranties and cross-border warranty systems.

"The ambition of an EU digital single market is to be the core guiding objective for a post-2010 strategy. In this regard, substantial measures must be taken into consideration, as this would be an initiative from which both companies and consumers will benefit. For this to become a reality there is a paramount need to increase consumer confidence in online business transactions, in particular on cross-border e-commerce in both goods and services.

"This can be achieved through the development of best-practice codes of conduct and through the diffusion of various EU-wide trustmarks. Once this confidence is instilled in consumers, e-government, e-learning and e-health tools can be fully developed, deployed and exploited commercially by the private sector," the MBB report concludes.

The full report is available at www.mbb.org.mt.