In 2020 Malta was hosting a stock of foreign direct investment assets valued at around €4.7 billion. This excludes financial sector assets, as these are notoriously volatile. Compared to 2012, 2020 figures meant an increase of €2.3 billion, meaning that foreign direct investment has more than doubled during the administration of two Labour-led legislatures.

Figures from the National Statistics Office indicate that in the first half of 2021 the value of foreign direct investment (excluding movements in the financial sector) continued to rise to reach a new record figure of €4.9 billion. This means that compared to the end of 2020 there has been a further €0.2 billion increase in FDI, or an increase of 4.2%. 

Among the sectors that stood out most notably were good increases in manufacturing, housing, computing and communication and transport, as well as in professional services. Looking at manufacturing by itself, it is striking that now the value of FDI manufacturing assets in Malta amount to nearly €1.1 billion, an increase of nearly 40% compared to 2012.

Compared to the end of 2020 there has been a further €0.2 billion increase in FDI, or an increase of 4.2%. 

In 2020 despite the pandemic Malta Enterprise approved 38 foreign direct investment projects with a total investment of €77 million.  These various projects are expected to create more than 900 jobs in the next three years.

By September 2021, Malta Enterprise had approved 26 expansion projects, with an investment of around €20 million generating more than 500 jobs.  In addition, there were 6 completely new foreign direct investment projects for a €27 million investment, which are expected to employ a further 442 persons.  This indicates that although there were another three months left, 2021 results already were better than those in 2020 in terms of job creation.

So much so that even the German ambassador argued in an interview with a local newspaper that the FATF decision to put Malta on a list of additional monitoring does not appear to have had any effect on investment arriving from his country to Malta.