The CIP Malta National Contact Point within Malta Investment Management Ltd. and the Enterprise Europe Network within Malta Enterprise was organizing an international conference on “ICT, clustering and other networking frameworks: exploiting their potential to boost competitiveness, innovation and sustainable growth”  (18th February 2009, Westin Dragonara, St. Julian), addressed by high caliber speakers from public and private, national and international organisations, ICT multinationals, including the Honorable Minister Tonio Fenech, Minister for Economy, Finance and Investments and the Foundation of Territories of Tomorrow.
Malta, like the entire Europe, is facing today the need to reshape its economy and society to meet the challenges brought about by the globalisation of markets and ever faster pace of technological change: a economic growth through higher productivity, innovativeness and competitiveness, but in a manner that ensures a sustainable and rational use of resources. So, policy initiatives aimed at one should not ignore the other, recommendation clearly made in the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation programme (CIP), and both are better served through the wider uptake and optimum use of ICT by citizens, businesses and public administrations. ICT is today becoming more and more pervasive and an integral part of everything we do, leading to a paradigm shift in how today’s economy and society function.
In this context, the aim of the event was to provide a forum for debate and experience sharing, to introduce to the local scene the European Network of Living Labs and the two recently certified Maltese Living Labs: EuroMedITI and the Living Lab Malta hosted by SmartCity Malta and to create a meeting place for entrepreneurs, innovators, business, academia, public administration and civil society representatives, giving them the occasion to establish direct communication channels and set the base for further collaborations and joint projects.