US currency printer Crane Currency will be up and running in Malta in the second quarter of 2018, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said today.

Speaking during a ground breaking ceremony for the company’s Ħal Far yet-to-be-built facility, Dr Muscat said the company would be employing some 500 people.

The company had already employed some 30 Maltese who were undergoing training abroad, he added.

It announced it would be opening a "state-of-the-art" $100 million facility in Malta during a visit by the Prime Minister in September.

New training courses will be announced during the next year to ensure that those keen to land a job at the Boston-based firm would be equipped to do so, Dr Muscat said.

“The last time our country attracted an investment of this magnitude with a comparable number of employees was in 1981... with what is now STMicroelectronics,” the Prime Minister said.

Crane was founded in 1801 by Zenas Crane in Boston. It now has facilities in the USA and Sweden and is involved in the currencies of more than 50 nations around the world.

Crane Currency CEO Stephen Defalco said the “state-of-the-art” centre would be a flagship facility for the company.