Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Communications Austin Gatt this morning launched a green paper – Next Generation Access Infrastructure, at today’s session of the National Information Society Advisory Council (NISCO). The Green Paper opens the discussion and consultation on the future infrastructure Malta needs to continue to be a leader in ICTs.

Dr Gatt said that the Government was presenting a paper with ideas on how to achieve the infrastructural setup the country needs to have in the next 5 years. He stressed that fibre connectivity was the next step since this technology had no limits in the integration, without compromise for quality, in the transmission of data that requires high bandwidth as opposed to today’s copper and cable transmission channels providing broadband.

Minister Gatt stressed that technologically there is no option for the country but to go for fibre to make the big leap forward. How to do it, who will be the players to invest and what role Government will need to play in this venture is still to be determined and is subject to the discussion at the national level launched today. Government wants the country to be in the top ten world rankings for the use of technology to enhance quality of life.

He stated that since the investment required is of a massive proportion, We need to delineate what is the Government’s role and what is the role of the private sector in securing the investment we need. The answer is not simple, however, we would be looking to exploit our small size so as to be able to implement a nation-wide solution.

The Minister said that he hoped this Green Paper will generate a discussion, so as to guide the Government on where our people want to be in 20 years time.

The green paper can be downloaded in Pdf format by clicking here.

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