Incentives to promote creativity, research and innovation in industry, investment in the government's ICT system, and measures to promote the production of digital services in Malta were the highlights of ICT-related measures presented in the Budget speech by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech on Monday.
Malta Enterprise will see its budget increased from €6.6 million to €9 million and will launch three new initiatives that should attract more direct foreign investment. These include foreign companies setting-up in Malta as a base for shared services in such sectors as call centres, software development, digital gaming and internet publishing.
However the most detailed measures are drawn in support of research and innovation, and these were the most detailed ever presented in a budget speech in recent years.
Mr Fenech stressed how the goals set in the 2015 Vision can be achieved only if research and innovation are supported. €1.7 million are being allocated to this effect and these will cover different initiatives.
First of all the Fund for Research and Innovation will see its funding doubled to €700,000. The Malta Council for Science and Technology, Malta Enterprise and the University of Malta will be tasked to draft a national strategy for the development of digital games against an allocation of €250,000. The same amount will be devoted to the establishment of a databank about the Human Genome. The University of Malta will also benefit from €50,000 for the creation of Malta University Research, Innovation and Development Trust Fund to support research at university and its application in industry. The government will also refund 15.2 per cent on expenses on approved research projects on which tax had been paid. Patented inventions that lead to commercial exploitation will have royalties partially exempt from taxation. Last but not least, different government laboratories will be integrated into a national Biotechnology Park in San Gwann with an investment of €20 million.
Indeed, after last year the vote for the Research and Innovation Fund of the Malta Council for Science and Technology was slashed by half to just €349,000, it will be doubled again next year.
In what he termed as the "creative economy", the Minister of Finance stressed the role of creativity in the economy, generating many value-added jobs in such sectors as ICT, films, art and design, and performing arts. In this context government intends to create a working group to come up with a regulatory and fiscal framework that promotes the creative economy. Some fiscal incentives were mentioned in the budget speech and these include tax credits on expenses to produce computer animation, special effects, movies, television programmes, interactive digital media and productions by sound recording houses.
A €100,000 fund will be created as an incentive to creativity and innovation in education, the arts, technology and manufacturing. Furthermore the Malta Film Commission will establish training courses for the production of movies to strengthen such a capacity locally.
Mr Fenech also announced that 2010 will see more substantial investment in the government's information systems. This investment, to the tune of €60 million will cover the payroll system, the Attendance Verification System, the roll-out of the Integrated Health Information System at Mater Dei hospital, the customs' IT system, the government's property management system, the electronic identity system and e-learning. The social security system and the public registry systems will be among those to be reviewed.
When he spoke about education, Mr Fenech announced the allocation of €16 million over a number of years to implement the e-learning strategy. This money will be used to provide schools with the latest information and communication technology and builds on the initiatives that have already been taken, including the distribution of laptop computers to all primary and secondary school teachers. A pilot project is being implemented to provide at least one computer in every kindergarten class. Furthermore, a mobile computer lab will also be set-up for ICT training outside schools.
The new electricity smartmeters to be installed in homes and businesses were also mentioned in the budget speech as one of the initiatives to provide better and cleaner energy resources.
The smartmeters are part of a €70 million project that has been entrusted to international ICT giant IBM and will result in much less technical losses for the provider, and better tariffs and billing for the consumers.
As part of the efforts to revitalise the tourism industry, Mr Fenech mentioned both an increased budget for the Malta Tourism Authority and a revamp of www.visitmalta.com , the MTA's tourism portal.
SmartCity Malta was mentioned just once in the whole speech, when the minister referred to the road that will be built from Żabbar to Ricasoli. However, the Malta Government Technology Investments [in SmartCity] Ltd has allocated €1.29 million under the Ministry for Infrastructure, Transport and Communication, where most ICT-related initiatives fall.
In the year when Malta will switch over to digital TV, revenue from TV licenses is expected to fall from €4.8 million to €4 million.
The vote for the Malta Information Technology Agency is set to decrease from €5.391 million this year to €4.3 million next year. The vote for the Malta Communications Authority will be exactly the same, €777,000.
Comparing next year's budget speech with this year's shows how much the government attained the targets set last year. The Biotechnology Park in San Gwann had been mentioned in last year's speech and allocated €15 million.
The investment in e-learning and the allocation of €16 million had already been mentioned last year, perhaps as a result of the fact that this investment is spread over a few years.
An initiative which had been mentioned in last year's budget speech but did not materialise is related to internet connectivity. Mr Fenech had announced that in 2009 the government was going to announce plans for the provision of high-speed "fibre-to-the-home" internet access based on fibre-optic cables.