Dutch company Aviation Cosmetics is set to relocate to Malta, in a €22 million investment which will see around 80 people employed once the company sets up.
The company is currently based in Eindhoven Airport, and its work involves painting and repainting aircraft exteriors, as well as carrying out internal refurbishing. It is now set to move to the Malta Aviation Park, which was formally inaugurated just hours after the relocation was announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Finance Minister Tonio Fenech and the company’s managing director Thomas Jansen.
In the deal struck, Aviation Cosmetics committed to building two hangars over 12,000 square metres of space, which would be able to simultaneously accommodate a Boeing 747 and a Boeing 737 or three of the latter.
Aviation Cosmetics’ work should prove to be complementary to that of other companies in the sector, some of which are involved in maintenance and ‘hard refurbishing’ of components. The Safi Aviation Park was the result of €17 million investment.
Work on this new park spanning 20 hectares started early last year and has been in operation for some time with SR Technics and Medavia already offering their services within its perimeter.
In his address during the opening of the park, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said it was no coincidence that the companies relocated to Malta. And he is right. The government decided to diversify the economy by setting up specialised MCAST training scholarships to ensure that there would be a ready workforce to service the industries once they set up shop in Malta.
The aviation sector now employs more than 1,000 people and there are plans to continue to expand as other companies see the potential of Malta
In his speech, the PM highlighted the manner in which, over just a few decades, the Maltese economy was restructured from one almost exclusively depending on textiles to high value-added factories such as pharmaceuticals, electronic chips and remote gaming with the latter now employing 5,000 people from international companies.
And this is key. In its recent report on Malta, the International Monetary Fund pointed out that while Malta’s performance and turnaround were ‘impressive’, it also warned that we should not put all our eggs in one basket, in terms of financial services.
The IMF said that if Malta became too reliant on this sector, it could run the risk of walking down the same path as Ireland and Spain – where over-reliance on a sector led to catastrophic economic problems once the bubble burst.
Malta’s main economic generators are tourism and financial services, but over the past years we have seen a proliferation of ‘new’ industries, including aeronautics, pharmaceuticals, I-gaming, customer support and many others.
While tourism will always be the main fulcrum, we are thinking ahead by ensuring that there are other industries to turn to, and perhaps even more importantly, having a local workforce that is trained and capable of doing the jobs being asked for.
In today’s world, the most important thing is to stay two steps ahead of the competition and thinking beyond the tip of your nose; this is one such example of where Malta has succeeded.