The first six months of 2012 have seen the Malta Enterprise Board approve just over 20 investment projects in the area of manufacturing and other sectors. Collectively the projects, some of which are extensions of existing factories and others that are completely new, will generate an investment of around €13 million and 225 new jobs in their first three years of operation.

Figures show that Malta is on track to continue to attract new projects of investment. Last year, a total of 42 projects were approved by the Malta Enterprise board. 26 were new projects and 16 were expansions. The projects are envisaged to carry an investment of €167.4 million and create 960 new jobs within three years.

A spokesman for Malta Enterprise told di-ve.com that these approvals take the total number of projects approved since 2008 up to around 155 new or expansion projects, leading to an investment of almost €340 million and expected to generate 3,700 new jobs.

The projects are being implemented by a combination of local and foreign investors with whom Malta Enterprise is closely and continuously working to assist in the development of such investment opportunities.

Malta Enterprise said that it is currently evaluating a number of other projects, albeit in some cases the processing is delayed due to missing information within the applications.

Asked specifically about the projects approved in the Ħal Far area, Malta Enterprise said that in the past four years, it approved a total of 13 projects in the area, with some existing companies submitting more than one expansion proposal for the Board’s approval. Among others, these companies operate in a range of sectors such as pharmaceuticals, metalwork as well as plastics and products thereof.

It is envisaged that these companies will invest €37.7 million and generate more than 500 new jobs in the coming three years. Several of the projects have already started to materialise.

According to the National Statistics Office, at the end of June 2011, foreign direct investment in Malta was estimated at €12.4 billion. Geographically, the EU is the largest contributor to Malta’s inward foreign direct investment, with Germany accounting for the lion’s share.

Statistics about international economic and financial transactions for the three months until March 2012 show that the foreign direct investment in Malta recorded net decreases of €99.1 million when compared to net increases of €41.6 million in the January to March period of 2011.