Malta needed to maximise its potential as a business processing centre which would exploit its informatics capabilities and its international communications networks, the Labour Party’s spokesman for information technology, Leo Brincat said.

While recognising that call centres had opened and more would open in Malta, Mr Brincat said that Malta was not yet identified as one of the best destinations for outsourcing of business processing activities.

This was proved by a report by the company Gartner which did not even mention Malta among the 43 best world destinations.

Malta was not mentioned either among the 50 main countries in the sector, in a list drawn up by the company Kearney, Mr Brincat added.

Malta’s size should not hinder its ability to overcome the obstacle – other countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, which joined the EU with Malta, and Commonwealth countries such as Mauritius, and Singapore had qualified. Labour was committed to put Malta on the map in this regard, Mr Brincat said.