Malta's infrastructure is the island's Achilles heel, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said this morning while addressing investors during a conference called "Follow the Entrepreneur Investors Summit"

He was responding to a question asked a question posed by a Belgian national who lives in Malta, regarding infrastructure.

"Over the years we always planned for an infrastructure to cater for 500,000 people. It eluded planners that, while on paper we are 500,000 people, we host more or less one million at times. So planning infrastructure for half of that leads to an infrastructural deficit," Muscat said. "We are trying to up the game - setting up the development bank, tapping EU funds for infrastructure like waste management, how to manage waste, how to produce energy out of waste."

He mentioned that water is another problem. "Water is a scarce resource in Malta. We are the only EU country that uses energy to produce water. Water is expensive, we need a game changer on this and are working actively on it."

Lastly, he mentioned road infrastructure. "We need a proper and decent infrastructure. This is part of next seven-year plan to improve road infrastructure."

He said that if someone were to ask him where he sees Malta in the next decade, there would be total electric vehicle infrastructure.

"In the more immediate future, we need to work towards a more connected public transport system, with real time updates."

A freelance journalist from Germany asked him a question related to his EU Parliamentary speech, and the poor turnout by MEPs.

"I learned through my 20 years in politics that crowded meetings and full rooms are signs of problems to come, so I'd rather address 30 politicians than 700. It was a relief that there were so few issues with what we had to say that only 30 showed up. "

Referring to big countries and small countries, Muscat said that while  the idea of big and small exists, it has limits.  "I discovered that if one has a powerful idea, or a meaningful project, it doesn't matter if it is a big or small country proposing it."

"I don't see this divide depicted between big and small, east and west, north and south.  Its stereotypical.  Some politicians might play the card during elections, but it does not exist.  What does exist is a divide on values. We are at junction of EU history.  28 soon 27 EU countries, calling ourselves European, but Europe does not mean same thing to every one of us. There are 40-year-olds in France who were European all their lives and 80-year-olds in Croatia who have been Europeans for 4 years."

During his main speech, he described Malta's first Presidency of the EU Council as positive, stating that Malta was able to make important and positive steps in the digital single market.

"The digital market is a big part of the EU's future. We are not late comers when it comes to digital economy.  Industrialisation in the manufacturing sector was driven by technology."

He indicated that the two main producers of smartphones use microchips which are made in Malta, "and that is our number one export."

He said that Malta is not a brass plate economy, or an economy based on one sector, highlighting that the economy has evolved over time. "We began as merchants.  We thrived during wars and suffered during peace due to our strategic location in med and then evolved, going into manufacturing, tourism, financial services and the digital economy."

"We are an open economy and when we flirted with idea of surrounding ourselves with metaphorical walls it didn't work, and so we embraced openness in way we deal with economic cycles."

"If you ask me what I wanted to do in the first four years in government, it was to put Malta on any investment shortlist.  I believe that today, we make it to shortlist and probably get the project.  Our biggest problem has always been visibility."

Describing Malta's main characteristics, Muscat mentioned legislative agility. "Things can be done in a relatively lean legislative structure in a short period of time. The second is the distance between policy makers and policy takers, which is very short. You can pick up the phone and speak with policy makers without too many barriers, too much bureaucracy. Most policies are not government driven, but are grass roots driven."

"Most of the time you will find our successful areas are not in the mainstream of global economy but in niche areas which might be too small for bigger jurisdictions to waste time on.  For us, a couple hundred million euros investment is big enough for us to devote time and resources. I believe this really makes a difference in lives of investors."

Giving a peak into the future for Malta's economy, the Prime Minister said that government is working on a  national block chain strategy. "We want to be one of the first in Europe to have a strategy that will enable us to harness the technology in government. We have ideas for land registration and the health sector. We like to experiment, like to test the limits of where we can go and what we can do."

" I believe future of Malta,  of any country or region lies not in focusing on one thing, but going for a wide range of ideas, trying to portray an idea of leadership which is capable of listening to people. After listening we can act on those ideas."

The Prime Minister spoke about business regulation. "Business needs regulation. That is almost a necessary evil. I don't subscribe to idea that business wants to be free from shackles.   Regulation brings certainty which brings more business and puts consumers at ease. We should specialise in providing smart un-burdensome regulation which does not equate to bureaucracy."

He mentioned the need for a new breed in the public service, a breed of smart regulators.  "It's difficult to find people with the know-how without conflicts of interest in a limited human resource country to regulate other business. This is a shortcoming and is an area where we need to attract more talent from elsewhere."

The event, which gathered leading entrepreneurs and investors across Europe, was hosted by Ariadne Capital, and featured many other speakers including prominent business persons from across Europe.