Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Capital Projects Ian Borg gave an update about the Maltese Maritime Registry, when he announced that while the flag has retained its place as first in Europe and sixth in the world, for the first time in history, the registry has qualified in the top 20 on the Paris MoU white list, in 17^th place. This list shows technical performance of the fleet and conformity with international conventions regarding safety, pollution prevention and work conditions for seamen. He announced that Malta has also achieved good performance in the Tokyo MoU and in America.

Minister Ian Borg said that, “for the first time, the Maltese flag has registered a detention rate lower than 2%. We have a registry that in the last 7 years nearly doubled its registered tonnage, from little more than 42 million tons at end 2012 to nearly 83 million tons at the end of last year. Despite difficult times for the industry, in 2019 we witnessed a growth of over 7% and saw the same growth percentage in superyacht registrations. In the first 6 months of this year we have had more than 30 new registrations in this niche, a very encouraging number. These results don’t only come with honours but have also resulted in an increase of over 13% in income in foreign currency, as the authority made more than €22 million in foreign currency in one year. The maritime industry remains an economic pillar that generates more than 14% of the Gross Domestic Product and value added jobs, and the government is committed to continue participating in dialogue and investing in workers and technology towards the retention of standards of quality, reputation and confidence achieved by this registry.”

He also spoke about several achievements regarding digitalisation, where an investment of €250,000 in European funds has led to the conclusion of a project of this kind which is being used by the European Commission as a pilot project. The minister also announced that in the coming weeks two other digitalisation initiatives will be launched while the authority will be implementing a pilot project aimed towards the implementation of a digital archive system within this directorate. The minister also said that in the spirit of professional development, a number of courses for the local and international yachting industry have been developed.