Malta hit the international headlines earlier this year when two Libyan airforce pilots, apparently defecting from Colonel Muammar Gadaffi’s regime, landed their fighter jets on the island. It was a high-profile example of a problem that has beset Malta, along with Italy and other southern Mediterranean countries, in recent years – large-scale illegal immigration from north Africa.
Yet Malta deserves to be in the news for positive reasons too, because it has a compelling economic success story to tell. The World Economic Forum’s 'Global Competitiveness Report 2010-11' ranks Malta 11th out of 139 countries for 'financial market development', up from 13th in the previous year and 34th the year before that. Malta is also ranked eighth for 'strength of auditing and reporting standards' (up from 12th the previous year), 10th for 'soundness of banks' (up from 13th), 12th for 'regulation of securities exchanges' (up from 13th) and 50th in the overall 'global competitiveness' rankings (up from 52nd).
