Chinese telecoms giant Huawei “did not come to Malta to sunbathe”, but was here to do business, Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said yesterday.
“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 already a good sign,” Prof. Scicluna told a news conference.
He was reacting to Opposition media criticism that the memorandum of understanding signed last Tuesday failed to stipulate the investment to be generated as well as jobs created. The MOU commits the company to begin testing 5G technology in Malta as well as potentially support the government in achieving fibre-to-home connectivity.
Prof. Scicluna said companies such as Microsoft had in the past not stated how much they would generate to the Maltese economy when they first set up on the island and the government could not be expected to force companies to commit to future investment plans.
Prof. Scicluna said Malta was entering a new era of industry. The 1990s, he said, had seen the rise of the local financial services industry. The early 2000s had seen I-Gaming set up on the island. Now, the government was focusing on attracting educational and healthcare companies as well as tapping the Asian market. The government was also keen on helping Maltese businesses infiltrate new economies, he said.
Fresh from a trip to Ethiopia, Prof. Scicluna said local businessmen were looking to Africa to set up shop.
When it comes to the measures for Greece we aren’t talking about anything out of this world
“We had a lot of businesses that had flourished in Libya. Now we are seeing movement in countries such as Kenya and Sudan where a lot of our services industries can do very well,” he said.
The Finance Minister expressed frustration at the media’s “constant hovering” around potential investors, suggesting that foreign companies could be “put off” from setting up on the island if they were harassed by the press, especially when asked about commercially sensitive issues.
“We need to take investment’s side as a country and welcome it,” he said.
Turning to the situation in Greece, Prof. Scicluna said the conditions being imposed on the economically troubled country were not too different from those set for Malta.
“When it comes to the measures for Greece we aren’t talking about 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 then people won’t like a lot of these measures. That makes this a politically difficult thing for the Greek government to sell to its voters, but it is the right thing to do,” he said.