Silvio Schembri hints at 'biggest foreign direct investment' in Malta's history
Sources say yet-to-be-announced deal with US medtech firm worth more than €100m
Malta has secured a major private investment that is poised to be the "largest foreign direct investment" in the country's history, Economy Minister Silvio Schembri said on Friday.
Speaking from Chicago in a video titled "good news for Malta", a smiling Schembri provided few details of the deal, save for saying the firm involved worked in the medical technology, or MedTech, sector.
He said the deal took two years of negotiations to seal and also involved Malta Enterprise and Indis, state agencies focused on investment and industrial parks.
Sources who spoke to Times of Malta said the deal was worth "north of €100 million" and involved a US firm. The company is expected to set up advanced manufacturing as well as research and development facilities in Malta.
In his video, Schembri said the deal would help further diversify Malta's economy and secure "new opportunities for young Maltese workers."
Previously, the government has touted a major expansion by semiconductor firm STMicroelectronics as the country's "largest" FDI project. That expansion, dubbed Project KKO, was completed last year.
Malta's FDI reached €480 billion by the end of 2024 and the country appears to be attracting the attention of foreign investors: it climbed to 33rd place in a global index of FDI attractiveness last year and an annual survey by EY found that 79 per cent of investors see Malta as a good place to invest.
Medtech is a major sector within the life sciences industry and encompasses any technology used to save lives or treat patients - from syringes to testing kits, tracking devices and complex surgical robots. The industry focuses on physical, mechanical and digital interventions, in contrast to the biological and chemical approach adopted by the pharmaceutical sector.
Rapid improvements in artificial intelligence are transforming the sector, enabling faster and more accurate scans, advances in robot-assisted surgeries and more precise alerts for patient monitoring devices.
The global medtech market, worth a combined $500 billion as of 2025, is dominated by North American firms, which hold around 40 per cent of the market.
Chicago is a medtech powerhouse within the US, hosting some of the sector's biggest companies, various medtech startup incubators and one of the country's leading rehabilitation hospitals.