EY Malta held its annual Malta Attractiveness Event on 25th October which featured 50 prominent speakers, including the Prime Minister, President and leader of the Opposition. This event has become Malta’s largest investment and business conference welcoming over 1,000 delegates annually.
Hon. Joseph Muscat, the Prime Minister of Malta and Hon. Dr Adrian Delia, the Leader of the Opposition took part in fireside chats, which shed light on Malta’s current issues in terms of economy and education.
Delia stated that one of Malta’s priorities should be restoring its reputation, which to him means coming together as a country. He continued to speak about Malta’s education system, by saying that we need to better and invest more focus on Malta’s current approach to education. When it comes to Malta’s financial sector, Delia fears how it is being viewed from abroad. He believes that there is a “need to reinstate a robust banking system”, in order to deal with predatory competitors.
During Muscat’s Fireside chat, he mentioned that Malta’s talent shortage is a gender issue. Even though most graduates are women, their involvement in the workforce still remains low. He believes that the answers to this issue are; gender mainstreaming, investing in education and attracting foreign talent. Lastly, Muscat believes that one of the main contributors to Malta’s growth within the next few years will come through the focus and change in climate policy.
The conference itself was focused on this year’s topic which was NextWave, focusing on the future of various industries and advancements in both technology and innovation. The forum introduces ways of how businesses can ensure that they are keeping up with Malta’s dynamic landscape.
EY Malta’s Director EU Advisory, Simon L Barbieri led a discussion on the results of EY’s annual Malta Attractiveness Survey. One of the main focuses of this report was discussing Malta’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attractiveness and what businesses can improve on to further their growth.
In 2019, Malta established a 77% FDI which is a 3% growth from 2018’s 74%. One of the areas that Malta struggles with is talent shortage, in fact results show that only 26% of investors are able to recruit their required personnel. Despite this, 80% of investors said they believe that the will still be operating in Malta in 10 years’ time.