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Gerald Fenech
With a 95 per cent rating for a clear and stable legislative environment and ratings of 90 per cent for the level of English of local human resources, a clear and stable political environment and administrative environment, Malta is viewed extremely favourably overall by top business executives who operate large to medium sized companies in the country.
These results are revealed in the Malta Attractiveness Survey for this year prepared by Ernst and Young, a copy of which was seen by Business Today. A set of questions was sent to the top 58 executives of foreign owned companies in Malta with an eventual response rate of exactly 50 per cent, that is 29 executives who responded.
From the respondents who answered to the survey questions, the turnover of 10 companies exceeds €35 million, 5 companies have a turnover ranging between €12 million and €35 million while the turnover of 7 other companies is between €2 million and €12 million. The remaining 7 companies have a turnover of less than€2 million.
Malta ranks highly in almost all the other categories in the survey. A rating of 85 per cent is obtained in skills and productivity of local human resources. A slightly lesser rating of 80 per cent is achieved in four sectors; telecommunications infrastructure, fiscal incentives and support measures from Government, a stable industrial relations environment and a stable social environment. Although corporate tax is viewed as rather high in Malta, a surprising rating of 70 per cent is achieved in this sector.
When one analyses further the perception on the local human resources segment, a substantial 65 per cent find this resource attractive or very attractive with only 15 per cent finding it not attractive. The skills rating are extremely high at 85 per cent attractive or very attractive. The costs segment is perceived as the most negative with only 50 per cent finding it attractive or very attractive whilst a substantial 40 percent have no opinion on the subject.
Productivity is another strong point with 85 per cent viewing it as very attractive with none viewing it as unattractive. However there appears to be a significant negative perception regarding labour laws and flexibility on the hiring, termination and duration of work with just 50 per cent viewing it as attractive. A surprisingly high 20 per cent find these laws not attractive or not attractive at all. |
