Malta is increasingly becoming attractive for Indian entrepreneurs, students and highly skilled Indian professionals workers, says a report in the Indian Economic Times.

An extensive article published Thursday says that Malta is now positioning itself as a hub for ICT, medical tourism, financial services and high end manufacturing and the fact that Malta is a wealth management centre makes it an attractive destination for high net worth Indians.

“We have a very fast growing IT services sector and so we need skilled professionals. Indians are well known for their IT skills and hence would be able to find good jobs in Malta. We are also promoting out high calibre educational institutions for higher studies among Indian students. Some of the advantages that Malta offers for Indian students are English as the language of instruction as well as significantly lower cost of education,” says Wilfred Kenely, the high commissioner of Malta in India quoted by the Economic Times.

While there are very few Indians in Malta so far, there’s a community of Sindhi businessmen who have been settled in the region for many years. “They are the second generation of traders and retailers and had moved to Malta during the partition of India. They are very well integrated and are locally respected. There are many success stories of the Indian community in Malta,” Mr Kenely said. He is the first Maltese high commissioner to India, the high commission was set up about seven months ago.

The government of Malta is now inviting Indian companies to set up operations in the country. From the corporate tax perspective, according to the Economic Times, Malta is quite a perfect place to run a business and if a shareholder is an individual or a company resident outside Malta, up to 93 percent of the company’s pre-tax accounting profit can be received as dividend.

Besides its strong fundamentals such as physical and legal infrastructure, Malta also has a big pool of skilled wealth management professionals, says the report. The regulatory regime in Malta is respected across Europe and the country offers an international lifestyle option within east access of European and Mediterranean capitals. The island’s banking infrastructure is geared up to cater to all levels of wealth from mass affluence to ultra high net worth. There are an increasing number of banks specifically set up to offer investment banking, private banking and wealth management services to the wealthiest of clients.

In India, work permits and student visas for Malta are now being done by the high commission in Delhi — earlier visas were handled by the Italian embassy. The University of Malta is also looking at attracting Indian students to some of its prominent courses, adds the report.

“Studying in Malta has all the advantages of studying in Europe and English is the medium of instructions. The University of Malta is an old and reputed university with very high standards of education. The courses that are likely to attract Indian students include MBA, MBBS, nursing and engineering. Students in Malta are allowed to do part-time jobs for up to 10 hours a week and courses are very cost effective at about 8000 Euros per year minus the living expenses. Student visas from India are now being processed in about 2-3 weeks,” says Priya Wadhera, research executive at the Malta High Commission who spoke the newspaper.

For Indian companies, Malta could provide an ideal European base, says Mr Kenely. “We have a tax-friendly regime for companies and also have a locational advantage. Besides being located in Mediterranean Europe, Malta is also close to the African and the Gulf markets. It could provide the ideal location for distribution and logistics hubs as well as for operations. Indian pharmaceutical major Aurobindo Pharma has already set up a manufacturing plant in Malta which will be the ideal distribution centre for its European market too,” he says.

The country has also become a base for the pan-European business process outsourcing industry with multi-lingual call centres for diverse business sectors coming up. The state-of-the art ICT infrastructure has been the key to development of rapid international services. Malta is also emerging as a big centre for medical tourism for high net worth individuals and is also a hub for the cruise operators, concledes the report.