Although a small economy, fully exposed to the vagaries of the global economic context, Malta has managed to weather recent upheavals remarkably well. This can be ascribed to the fact that the economy is diversified, with the result that a downturn in any one sector is compensated for by continued strong performance in other areas. The country’s Gross Domestic Product stood at €12.3 billion in 2018 with high exports per capita of over €28,000 pointing to the essentially export-driven economy, both in physical goods as well as services. In this area, companies are assisted by Trade Malta, the entity tasked with facilitating both incoming and outgoing trade flows.

It is also pertinent to point out that, although the country is well known as a tourist destination and, increasingly, as a financial services hub, the manufacturing industry still has a very important role to play with a contribution of around 10% to the country’s GDP as well as being the second largest employer on the island. All this points to a competitive edge, not only in newer sectors, which is to be expected, but also in well established areas such as industry.

Malta is also part of the Commonwealth and hosted the Commonwealth Business Forum in 2015.