In the last nine years, the Maltese Maritime Registry has doubled its registry tonnage, transport minister Ian Borg said during a press conference on Monday.

Elaborating on the subject, Borg said that in 2012 there were around 45 million tonnes registered, where by the end of 2020, this had increased to 86 million tonnes. By the end of 2021, 9300 vessels were registered under the Merchant Shipping Act, which adds up to 86.1 million tonnes, an increase of 2.2% over December 2020. By the end of 2021, Malta had almost reached 1,000 yachts under the Maltese Flag.

“From this activity alone, Transport Malta generated €24 million over the past year. This means an increase of more than 82% over 2012, which also means that just over 6% of the world’s merchant ship fleet is registered under the Maltese Flag,” said Borg.

The register also qualified with the top 20 in the whitelist of the Paris Memorandum of understanding, ranking in 17th place.

Borg announced that Malta will be benefitting from an investment of €6.5 million to implement a new digital system in the field.

The Merchant Shipping directorate has already started such a process with the first digital project already implemented. The project will allow the application process of more than 100,000 sailors to be digitalised, making it much more efficient.

Transport Malta is also regulating its maritime courses, those present locally as well as those found abroad, where in recent months together with the industry, has developed and accepted a number of courses such as those for crew working on luxury yachts.

Present for the press conference was also Chairman and CEO of Transport Malta Joseph Bugeja.