“In 1964, when Malta became independent, it had more or less the same GDP per inhabitant as Singapore. Today, theirs is 2.5 times higher than ours,” Gordon Cordina told the Luxembourg paper Tageblatt in an interview.

“In the 1960s, Singapore launched itself into textiles and Malta did so 10 years later, at the same time when Singapore was turning to electronics. Even today we are 10 years late getting to growth sectors,” Prof. Cordina added.

Facing competition from Asia, Eastern Europe and North Africa, Malta was later forced to withdraw from textiles and electronics and turn to other sectors such as pharmaceutics or high technology. It has accelerated its change with entry into the EU in 2004, succeeding in attracting new investors.

The government is proud it has succeeded in attracting Lufthansa Technik, which is doing maintenance on its smaller planes and plans to do maintenance on its bigger ones as well.

In the pharmaceutical sector, some companies have set up a research centre to benefit from legislation that allows them to prepare the development of copies of medicines, which are still under protection, and to launch generic versions when the protection time is over.

“Traditional industries have began to reposition themselves, such as printing, which is the printing of professional magazines, or the agro-food industry,” Prof. Cordina added.

“Our GDP per inhabitant is still some 70 per cent of the GDP per inhabitant average for the EU,” notes Adrian Said, the coordinator of Competitive Malta. “We must accelerate to reach the EU average.”

The euro will put Malta on an equal basis with its competitors, such as Cyprus, Luxembourg or Slovenia, Mr Said added, listing the advantages of the common currency: the absence of exchange costs, the credibility of a currency of reference. “To this we must add that our population speaks English and is well trained, that we are well connected to the rest of Europe and that our lifestyle is very agreeable,” he said.

Malta has also modernised its traditionally strong financial services sector. It has ended its status as a fiscal paradise to be able to enter eurozone while keeping an attractive fiscal regime.

“The legislation and attraction of the fiscal regime are attracting hedge funds and subsidiaries of captive insurance,” Mario Mallia, financial director of the Bank of Valletta noted. The captive companies insure the activity of big companies (in Malta’s case, those relating to cars and energy).

But to respond to the needs of such investors, Malta needs to upgrade its education system and train more qualified persons, according to observers.

For Lufthansa Technik, the pharmaceutical sector or Smart City, government, industrialists and university have come together to offer specific training courses.

“The training of specialised engineers began from zero and the efforts made, have, after five years, delivered important results but much more needs to be done,” Prof. Cordina said.