IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The event is organised by the Curriculum Management and eLearning Department (CMeLD) within the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education (DQSE) and the Directorate for Educational Services (DES), and this year’s running theme is Maltese history.

Throughout 2020, Identity Malta issued 34,157 new e-ID cards, of which 10,697 (31%) were issued in the new card format, the agency said in a statement.

Identity Malta had all hands-on deck during the global pandemic, in order to ensure that clients’ needs were seen to. In fact, the Agency issued 133 emergency travel documents and processed 568 urgent passport requests last year.

Throughout the pandemic, Identity Malta noticed a surge in government e-service activity, activating 76,754 new eID virtual accounts, which is an increase of 87% over 2019. Furthermore, the Agency responded to clients’ request to reset their virtual eID passwords, with 139,464 passwords being reset in 2020.

Malta needs to address its “severe digital skills gap” as almost half the population do not possess at least basic skills, according to an EU index.

Seventy per cent of the Maltese are internet users, which is below the EU average of 75 per cent. But only 55 per cent possess at least basic digital skills, with the EU average standing at 59 per cent.

A report issued by the European Commission has placed Malta second in the ranking for the best online services provided by the local government.

Speaking at an international conference called ICT-Enabled Sustainability In Smart Cities, Claudio Grech, who heads the Malta Information Technology Agency, said the country could not wait until the ultra-high speed fibre optic networks became the global standard to adopt the technology, otherwise it would not be as attractive for investment by IT companies.

Investment in telecommunications

The Commission reports that the latest available data, as at 2010, indicates that Malta ranks third in the EU with respect to investments undertaken by the telecommunications sector. In fact, investment was boosted in 2009 by the network deployment of the new mobile operator and continued to increase in 2010 mostly due to significant investment in the upgrade of broadband networks. Such investments reached €46 million, that is, 20.7 per cent of 2010 revenue.

The survey says that Malta ranks third, behind Iceland at 86.7% and Korea at 95.9%.

Between June 2009 and June 2010 broadband subscriptions in Malta surged by an unprecedented 10.2% - the largest jump recorded over the years, according to figures compiled by the NSO.

The Government of Malta says it is committed to accelerating the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband services to all areas of Malta and Gozo, concentrating initially on priority broadband users such as schools, hospitals, businesses, and providers of other public services, where possible. Following this, it plans to reach all residential areas in a phased approach through a nationwide FTTH network.

Following are extracts from his speech, in which he outlines the high use of SMS in Malta and its significance for e- and m-Government channels.

While Malta has 95 per of government services already available online, the EU is trailing behind with just 74 per cent. Malta also achieved better results than the EU average for usability.

According to the report, 87 per cent of those connected to the internet are making use of online government services while the EU’s average falls to 70 per cent.

DESI index finds Malta scoring above the EU average

Malta ranks above the European average when it comes to fast broadband and e-government services but many local citizens still lack digital skills, an annual study by the European Union has found.

This year's Digital Economy and Society Index found that Malta's score for 2016 was above the EU average, with the country's progress outpacing that of many other member states.

The Act establishes general provisions facilitating the exercise of freedom of establishment for service providers and the free movement of services in the internal market. It also caters for the removal of legal and administrative barriers to trade in the certain sectors. The Act excludes certain service sectors from its scope – as does the Directive – such as financial services, electronic communication services and networks, transport, gaming and private security services, amongst others.

MITA has been acting as the Government's Internet Service Provider (ISP) since the mid-nineties, procuring Internet bandwidth and routing services from local carriers and repackaging it with value-added services, such as web filters, prior to providing it to public service users and state school students.

MITA has been acting as the government’s Internet Service Provider since the mid-nineties, procuring Internet bandwidth and routing services from local carriers and repackaging it with value-added services, such as web filters, prior to providing it to public service users and state school students.

The programme pools together a number of students wishing to find a work-attachment for the summer in which they can apply their ICT and ICT-related business knowledge and capabilities.

The first core indicator, 'Online sophistication', measures the extent to which eGovernment services allow for interaction and/or transaction between Government and citizens or businesses. The second indicator, 'Full online availability' measures to which extent the 20 basic services are available; Malta scored 100% in both.

Speaking during a Mimcol conference “ICT - Enabled sustainability in ‘smart’ cities”, Mr Grech defended the smart island concept saying this was not a political gimmick.

Had it been so, large companies such as IBM and Cisco would not be investing in Malta.