Updated 1300
Malta Stock Exchange reports record financial results for 2024: The Malta Stock Exchange (MSE) reported record results for 2024, with revenue up 4.26% to €9.32 million and operating profits rising 10.25% to €5.43 million. Despite a 5.71% rise in costs due to tech and workforce investments, net profit margin improved to 41%, up from 38% in 2023. Total assets grew by 10.73% to €15.6 million, driven by higher investment in interest-bearing instruments. Executive chairperson Joseph Portelli credited the performance to strategic focus and operational discipline. The MSE highlighted its commitment to innovation, efficiency, and market development, noting its strong showing despite global economic uncertainties and inflationary pressures. It aims to boost trading volumes and liquidity in Malta’s capital markets.
€45 million MCAST collective agreement to be signed tomorrow: Prime Minister Robert Abela announced a new €45 million, five-year collective agreement for MCAST lecturers and technicians, calling it the best ever for the institution. The deal, covering eight staff grades, includes improved wages, conditions, and support for academic and technical roles. It follows months of union directives and negotiations, now resolved with significant progress. The agreement is part of a broader government strategy to enhance public sector employment, alongside recent deals for civil servants and a €4 million Microsoft partnership to modernise digital infrastructure. Abela emphasised that despite increased spending, Malta’s economy remains robust, boasting the EU’s fastest growth, low unemployment, and controlled debt and deficit levels.
Ex-TM chief proposes turning Hurd’s Bank into artificial industrial island: Former Transport Malta CEO Jonathan Borg has revived a 2013 proposal to build an artificial island on Hurd’s Bank, 12 nautical miles off Marsascala, to house Malta’s industrial and maritime sectors. Now Malta’s ambassador-designate to Panama, Borg said the project would free up mainland space and create a cutting-edge maritime hub. The island would host power stations, dockyards, fuel depots, and recycling plants, linked to Malta via bridge and ferry. He believes the concept remains viable, though it would now require alignment with modern environmental and sustainability standards, including potential use of carbon capture technology. The idea resurfaces as Malta explores six land reclamation sites under its 2050 vision to address land shortages.
Morning Briefing
Malta to Formally Recognise Palestine
Prime Minister Robert Abela announced Malta will formally recognise Palestine as a state on June 20, aligning with a UN conference. While Malta has hosted a Palestinian ambassador, formal recognition has never been granted. Abela said Malta cannot ignore the human tragedy unfolding in Gaza. Abela indicated that the development will take place on June 20, the scheduled date of a United Nations conference. (Times of Malta)
Bernard Grech – Culture Vital to National Identity
Opposition Leader Bernard Grech described Malta’s cultural sector as essential to the nation’s identity and public development. Speaking during a PN dialogue with artists and cultural figures, he addressed challenges in the sector and emphasised that government should support—not compete with—the private sector. He said that artists’ work allows for future generations to be able to enjoy cultural, historical and national heritage. Grech added that there needs to be more investment towards more, bigger spaces for workers in the sector, to be able to expand it.(Maltatoday)
Public Sector Workforce Grows by Over 12%
Malta’s full-time public sector workforce grew by 12.25% between December 2018 and December 2024, rising from 47,687 to 53,529, according to the National Statistics Office. Public sector employees now account for 18% of the country’s total workforce. Registered full-time employment as of December 2024 amounted to 291,474 workers, NSO figures show, with those having a part-time occupation as their primary job amounting to 35,204. (The Malta Independent)
