Speech by the Hon. Dr. Austin Gatt, Minister of Justice and Local Government, at the Graduate Potential Seminar

Rector of the University,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is an honour to be invited to address this seminar, which directly deals with such a vital component of the future of both our society and economy. In my address today, I will be focusing on the great opportunities stemming out from the rapid and exciting developments in the field of the information and communication technologies, and what is actually the Government doing to exploit the local potential and transform it into a digital hub in the Euromed region.

Information and communications technologies are constantly revolutionising almost every aspect of our lives. In this setting, Governments and companies all over the world have recognised that in order to survive, they need talented people with the right skills and know-how to drive them forward in the Internet era. Nevertheless, despite this mammoth reliance of the world on technology and the Internet, in recent times we have all witnessed sharp declines in the stocks of the major dot coms.

Nevertheless, despite the steep fall in the stocks of major dot coms, the Internet and networking business will not come to a halt. The Economist Intelligence Unit estimates last year the online Internet population has risen to over 420 million users. In the process, over half-a-trillion dollars were spent in goods and services.

It ispredicted that by the end of 2002, the total Internet generated revenue would stand at a staggering $US trillion 1.234. All these figures indicate the Internet and e-business markets will still remain a lucrative industry for the years to come.

However, it is anticipated that companies will shift their focus to improved customer relationship management and in the process will severely bend over to try and minimise their overheads. This suggests that in the near future these companies will be on the lookout for regions where they can transfer their operations and run them efficiently at lower costs.

The rapid advancement in technological developments and the upsurge of the Internet has meant that organisations need more people with the right skills, at the right time. In fact, despite the decline of the markets referred to previously, Governments and companies around the globe are facing an exponentially increasing shortage of ICT-specialists mainly in Internet and networking specialisations. It is estimated that in 2001 in Europe 1.6 million new jobs required these specialisations. Of these vacancies, 400,000 went unfilled due to a shortage of suitably qualified workers. This figure will increase to 600,000 by the end of 2002.

This Government strongly believes that if rightly packaged, Malta can easily serve as a hub for Euromed Internet operations by offering the services that the above vacancies are not permitting to be delivered in Europe. We have a series of invaluable characteristics that form part of the portfolio required by a country to be acclaimed as a hub for the high-tech industry. Political stability, climate, wide-spread proficiency in the English language, telecoms infrastructure, business promotion policy, low operational costs, positive Government attitude towards ICT-development and high level of education are all attractive traits for multi-national high-tech companies.

Nevertheless, Malta still lacks two essential and basic requirements that may eventually result to be the determining factors for major dot coms not transferring their operations to Malta:

International bandwidth – the problem of the single cable that serves as our only international internet connection to the rest of the world; and

Shortage of qualified and internationally certified system engineers, Internet experts and network specialists.

Successfully tackling these two problems together with a sound business promotion package, an international marketing effort and a series of strong scouting missions will definitely reap the dividends, which are much desired and deserved by our country. Needless to say, the multi-dimensional benefits stemming from such achievements are highly significant.

I don’t intend to discuss the issue of the international bandwidth or to engage into a historical analysis of what has lead to the stark shortage of ICT-specialists. Today, I would like to share with you Government’s strategic approach towards addressing this shortage and also outline a number of programmes and initiatives, which my Ministry is pursuing in doing this.

At a strategic level, a fundamentally mistaken approach, implicitly adopted in the recent years, was to devise ICT-employment and ICT-education strategies on practically separate planes. Besides the fact that our country does not possess the luxury of wasting already scarce resources, it makes no strategic sense to devise an ICT-educational strategy, which will not service or meet the requirements of the potential local ICT-industry.

In fact the industry has consistently expressed its views on the matter and has called on Government to appreciate its importance and sensitivity and take the initiative by launching programmes to bring together industry and the educational establishments. This situation merits a holistic approach through a Government-led effort in integrating both educational and employment agendas into one concerted drive to create synergy in this cutting-edge field.

Through, the eMalta Commission Government is considering the complex ICT-education and employment problem on five counts:

1. The capability of the local educational environment to attract students to further ICT-related studies and eventually the ICT labour-market;
2. The limited vertical and horizontal range of education, training and certification opportunities available;
3. The matching element between the output of ICT-educational and training institutions and the requirements of the ICT-labour market;
4. The available capacity in ICT-educational and training institutions for meeting demanding educational and training requirements;
5. The retention of high quality personnel in the local labour market.

Undoubtedly this problem merits the creation of a continuous consultative process to articulate a nation-wide vision and strategy, sustained by an effective time-proof action programme. This falls within the remit of the eMalta Commission, which in fact articulates its thinking about this matter as one of its six strategic trusts, where it aims to steer Malta to become a centre of excellence for ICT-labour supply. In this respect, I am pleased to note that the Commission has already embarked on a wide consultation process and has already registered a number of successes.

In view of its mandate to translate policy into practice the Commission did not limit itself to enable this discussion and address this fragmentated situation. It has also actively pursued a number of initiatives, which are aimed at addressing the element of immediacy in the ICT skill-shortage problem and the divide between education and employment policy-making. Today, I would like to focus on two particular initiatives, which are of particular interest for this Forum:

First is the establishment of an ICT-forum. In recognition of the importance of this policy-linkage, the eMalta Commission and the Employment and Training Corporation are joining their forces to embark on a structured consultation which will bring around one table the decision-makers in the educational institutions and the representatives of the ICT-industry.

The Forum will serve as a catalyst taking a proactive approach, in bringing together the key players in ICT education to help them rationalise their efforts, and to identify and develop training programmes that react rapidly to the actual ICT requirements of the private sector. Amongst the first objectives of the Forum there will be:

• The adoption of key position descriptions for the ICT sector

• Establishment of standards of competence for these positions

• Mapping out training paths for the attainment of these standards, expanding both the vertical and horizontal ranges of education, training and certification opportunities; and

• The development and forecasting capacity for ICT skills

Secondly, the eMalta Commission is actively pursuing an ambitious programme to offer to Maltese students the possibility to obtain industry-leading certifications in ICT-specialisations such as systems engineering and Internet networking. In fact, on the 19^th February, together with Cisco Systems we will be launching the setting up of a Regional Academy of the Cisco Networking Academy Programme in Malta. This initiative will give the opportunity to our students to learn the latest networking technologies and also obtain highly acclaimed networking certifications which are portable in practically any country in the world. The Cisco Certification is only the first in a string of world-class certifications that we will be bringing about.

This is what this Government wants to give to its businesses, students and employees. The opportunity to be always that stride above the rest. Within this context, I link my thoughts to the relevance of our application for full membership in the European Union. We have to rapidly dress up for the success that the European Union will offer our labour force in the ICT-industry, leveraging on the nation’s potential, hence exploiting the window of golden opportunities, which the Union offers.

This Government believes in its people, in their skills and in their capabilities to be always leaders and never followers.

Thank you.