ICT and Digital Gaming

Fuelling the iEconomy

As countries are getting ready for the virtual revolution, cloud computing and big data are quickly moving from being mere buzzwords to becoming key parts of the digital economy. But the change has not come without challenges.

“The rate at which innovations in web technology are being spawned is so fast that they may be difficult to cope with if we are not sufficiently prepared as a country,” Edward Zammit Lewis, former Parliamentary Secretary for Competitiveness & Economic Growth, said. While Malta had been quite successful in up-skilling its human capital to cope with the changes, more could be done to stimulate innovation.

Dr Zammit Lewis said that ICT uptake had been high in sectors such as banking, finance, insurance and eGaming. However, there were still many areas where the smart take-up of ICT is lacking and where there “is plenty of room for growth. These comprise areas affected by market failure, such as infrastructure management, energy efficiency and public transport.” SMEs also had to be encouraged and supported to embrace the smart application of web technologies to internationalise, innovate and transform themselves into digital enterprises.

Cloud computing offered significant growth potential for the business community, John Vassallo, Chairman of Microsoft Malta, said. “Companies are caught between the limitations of desktop computing and the expense and complexity of managing their own infrastructure to scale up to the needs of today. Therefore, cloud computing is very much the solution.” Cloud computing would help SMEs to compete with the largest companies because they get access to the same technology that their big multinational competitors have. Mr Vassallo also highlighted Malta’s potential to become a leader in cloud technology. “We could be the first country in the world that actually becomes completely cloud based, bringing with it the economic benefits that the cloud actually produces.”

Malta’s ICT sector was already driving economic growth and job creation, Dr. Zammit Lewis said, adding that it contributed 6 per cent to Malta’s GDP and employed approximately 3,500 professionals. On a wider level, Mr Vassallo emphasised, the ICT sector was directly responsible for 5 per cent of European gross domestic product. In the coming years, he said, cloud computing alone could create 400,000 new SMEs in the EU. Similarly, the European app economy employed 1.8 million people in 2014, rising to 4.8 million jobs by 2018, the Microsoft Chairman said. This would offer opportunities for Malta to attract developers of mobile applications to the island.

To keep ICT moving forward and transform Malta into a digital-enabled nation, the government launched the Digital Malta strategy, Dr Zammit Lewis explained. He said that the strategy included a number of measures tackling various issues such as the need to develop more online content, citizen engagement, support for start-ups, safer internet, cloud computing services, ICT innovation in public procurement, eLearning, digital by default legislation, next Generation Access Networks and most importantly ICT educational programmes.

The advent of the digital economy where data is more valuable than ever was also generating some rethinking about the way IT infrastructure is deployed, Edward Woods, Chairman of the Malta Communications Authority, mentioned. He highlighted that in the last few months Malta had seen advanced broadband networks being deployed at an increasing pace. These new networks provided some of the highest internet broadband speeds available in the European market.

Tony Sultana, Chairman of the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA), also emphasised the need for speed: “In the current knowledge economy we have to invest in solutions that are able to be implemented in months, or better still, weeks. There were times when we used to wait for technology standards. The world does not wait for standards, it moves fast.”