During his speech at the S3C – Smart Countries, Cities, Congress – held in Paris, Parliamentary Secretary Dr Josè Herrera said that the national ICT strategy is yielding results and contributing towards further prosperity in Malta. 

Thanks to the strong overall national performance in the ICT sector, Malta had reaffirmed its Standards and Poors credit rating as ‘A’ with a stable outlook performance. The same positive results were registered in the 2014 Digital Agenda Targets whereby more SMEs were now selling online. There was an increase from 10.4% in 2013 to 15.7% in 2014 while at the same time the EU average was 14.5%. Other positive results were registered in the usage of the internet regularly, increasing from 66.2% in 2013 to 70.2% in 2014 and more citizens using eGovernment services, up 10% in a year with 40.3% of the whole population making use of such services in 2014.

Josè Herrera said that these positive results were the result of the Digital Malta Strategy, which was launched by the Prime Minister of Malta in May 2014. The strategy, which is built on 3 strategic pillars, is supported by 3 horizontal enablers: regulation and legislation, infrastructure and human capital. He said that the Digital Malta Strategy was a long-term policy level strategy, supported by a programme of initiatives drafted on a yearly basis. 

The conference was held under the patronage of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Mr. Laurent Fabius and the Secretary of State for Digital Technologies, Mrs. Axelle Lemaire.