Universally, ICT is acknowledged as a fundamental enabler and one of the pillars for socio-economic development. The past ten years have seen a rapid growth of the ICT industry in Malta. ICT contributes circa 5.7% value-added to national GDP 7 (Fig. 2) and employs 3.3% of a population of 165,300 gainfully employed 8 (Fig. 3). In 2013, the World Economic Forum ranked Malta in 28th place (out of 138 countries) in its Networked Readiness Index (Fig. 4), which measures the preparedness of an economy to use ICT to boost competitiveness and well being. Malta also featured in fourth place for the importance of ICT to the government vision and in fifth place for successfully promoting the use of ICT within the country 9. The fact that there is political consensus on ICT strategic direction is a strength. Fig. 2 Source: NSO Fig. 3 Source: NSO 7. 8. 9. Source: NSO – Gross Domestic Product. The ICT sector excludes iGaming, which is classified under a different category. Source: NSO - Gainfully Occupied Population. Source: The Global Information Technology Report 2013 prepared by the World Economic Forum. National Digital Strategy 2014 – 2020 13