The manufacturing climate of the past six years is a far cry from the one that characterised the previous five years, during which over 60 manufacturing companies closed down leading to an average of a thousand jobs being lost a year.

Minister for the Economy, Investment and Small Businesses Dr Chris Cardona, together with parliamentary secretary for Consumer Rights, Public Cleansing and Support for the Capital City, Deo Debattista, reassured the government's unwavering commitment to reinvigorate the once abandoned entrepreneurs and blameless labourers in the industry.

When informed of ArrowPharm's global restructuring and its plans to close down their operations in Malta in 2016, Malta Enterprise immediately left no stone unturned to find the best possible firm suitable to take over the assets and the employees of ArrowPharm.

PharOS made the first Greek investment in the manufacturing industry in Malta, taking over the deserted 13,000 square metres to expand and diversify its portfolio to include manufacturing and testing of generic pharmaceutical products. Today, the greater part of the company's workforce is made up almost entirely of the ex-ArrowPharm workers.

"Lower electricity bills and a conducive environment have seen the manufacturing industry in Malta become viable again, and we made sure that when one opportunity was lost, another opportunity became imminently available. We gave our commitment to the local manufacturing sector and our economy has reaped great rewards in return," Minister Cardona added.