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13.06.19 5 NEWS LAIM CARTER ACCORDING to the Digital Econ- omy and Society Index (DESI), pub- lished yesterday, Malta leads the Eu- ropean Union in availability of fixed broadband services, being the only EU country with full coverage of ultrafast networks. Mobile broadband take-up has experienced a progressive year- ly growth of 32%, that is from 65% in 2016 to 97% in 2018. The index conducted by the Europe- an Commission assessed its member states' digital competitiveness. Overall, the index ranks Malta 10th out of the 28 EU member states, es- tablishing Malta's performance above the EU average. Malta also ranked second in the take-up of fast broadband by house- holds. In fact, in 2018, 69% of house- holds had such service whilst the Eu- ropean average stood at 41%, whilst Malta's ranking in take-up of ultrafast broadband rose significantly from 3% in 2016 to 23% in 2018, which sur- passes the European Average. Speaking after the release of the DESI index, Parliamentary Secretary for Financial Services, Digital Econ- omy and Innovation Silvio Schembri welcomed with satisfaction the find- ings of the annual assessment. Schembri said that whilst the assess- ment clearly showed Malta's strong IT infrastructure, more efforts were needed in enhancing the existing skills and to encourage future generations to pursue a career in this industry. "While as a country we have moved fast in the digital space, we are still lagging behind in female participation in the ICT sector. Hence, as a govern- ment, we are committed to boost our efforts in encouraging women to pur- sue a career in this industry," he said. "While Malta's digital infrastructure is at the forefront as reflected in the DESI assessment itself, our next chal- lenge is to enhance the existing skills and that of future generations which are now required in most jobs. In fact just today, the WOMEN4IT project was launched aimed at developing the digital competences of young women who are at risk of exclusion from the labour market, thus improving their employability. Our ultimate goal is to provide a complete ecosystem that pays operators to operate from here by sustaining our talent pool and gen- erating further opportunities." Malta tops EU fixed broadband services index According to the EC's annual index, Malta is the only EU member state with full coverage of ultrafast networks GOTO, the island's first na- tional car sharing solution, yes- terday introduced a roundtrip service to give users the con- venience of having a car avail- able round the clock, whether for meetings, shopping or the weekend. is new option serves like a personal car and gives drivers the facility of securing a vehicle three months in advance and keeping it for longer, unlike GoTo's popular one-way ser- vice that can only be booked 15 minutes in advance. Car Sharing Services Malta CEO Liran Golan said: "Our GoTo car sharing option has grown exponentially within just six months and we are wit- nessing a trend where those liv- ing in Malta are slowly seeking alternatives to owning a car — this new service continues to build on this green philosophy." is €8 million initiative, run by Car Sharing Services Malta, a subsidiary of CAR2GO Isra- el, and established in collabo- ration with Transport Malta, was introduced in Malta last November and has already sur- passed expectations. To date close to 6,500 drivers have registered to use its fleet of electric cars with an average of 600 trips a day being record- ed. According to the latest in- ternational research, the car- sharing market is growing at a rapid rate as governments in- troduce positive directives for such services. is coupled with citizens' increasing concerns over envi- ronmental degradation, as well as the high maintenance and upfront cost attached with per- sonal cars, people are prefer- ring shared mobility services for commuting. GoTo's new roundtrip service uses hybrid Toyotas and once the prepaid time is over all you have to do is just drop off the car at the same spot you picked it up from. A total of 30 cars will be made available from 10 localities across Malta and Gozo start- ing this week. Contrary to the one-way service, these cars can only be accessed from private parking areas. "Our goal is to offer an inno- vative, cost-efficient and con- venient alternative to owning a car. is ties in with govern- ment plans to introduce alter- native transportation modes, and reduce dependency on pri- vate cars," Liran said. GoTo rolls out new fleet for roundtrip service

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