Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion Carmelo Abela stated that since the expansion of Malta’s foreign affairs portfolio to start including Trade Promotion has brought about by change. This placed Malta’s diplomatic network in a stronger position to participate in Malta’s economic growth, both in terms of attracting foreign investment but also in assisting local companies wanting to internationalise their operations.

Minister Abela was speaking at the 1st PiConference in Malta taking place at Palazzo Parisio in Naxxar. He also emphasised the importance of technology to act as one of the solutions in this regard.

He referred to the Governmental Budget 2020 measure announced last week seeing Malta investing €8.5 million on an online spell checker for the Maltese language.

“The message from the Government of Malta to the expats in our country is clear: We want you to understand our culture, we want you to understand our way of life, and most importantly we want you to feel at home. It is also very important to note that learning another language will not only give you a stronger insight into the life of those who speak it”, noted Minister Abela.  

The minister also highlighted the necessity of putting down language differences as most often there are the first barriers that need to be brought down for societies to thrive. 

He concluded that digital competence is a must in this day and age. We thus need to be careful about not having a situation that leads to a ‘digital divide’ whereby people who are not being digitally competent end up being excluded.