ICT was the best thing that ever happened to Malta, the Prime Minister said.

“I have always argued that ICT was the best thing that ever ­happened to Malta,” Dr Gonzi said, adding technology ­“transformed us completely”, from an island that for thousands of years was cut off from the mainland to a country which was now connected to the world.

Dr Gonzi was speaking at the San Ġwann offices of Icon, a web company which is marking its 10th anniversary. He said the internet had eliminated the physical limitations Malta was bound by and permitted businesses to thrive through the online realm, which, he noted, “is the real world nowadays”.

The company, which employs 25 people, has just opened an office in Milan and it estimates that within the next two years it will be raking in more income from abroad than locally.

During the visit, Dr Gonzi, a self-confessed computer buff, was absorbed in discussions with developers.

He said that when his children were young, he had actually coded a game in the computer language BASIC for his children to play a variant of Ludo against the computer.

The company, run by Gegè Gatt and Ian Castillo, took the opportunity to launch its latest product, ICON.travel, software which handles booking and travel tasks for websites.