The Government of Malta avows that appropriate fishery and aquaculture management passes through an accurate and timely control of the phenomena influencing the sector (fishery and aquaculture statistics in the broad sense).

The Government also recognises the need to reorganise the Fishery Department to better respond to the above requirements. During the reorganisation process the Government took the opportunity of the existing sub-regional FAO Project "COPEMED" to seek technical assistance in building up national capabilities for data collection and information systems.

Immediate consultations held with FAO and COPEMED resulted in a project activity supported by the Project aiming at directly assisting the Government of Malta to build up adequate infrastructures for the establishment of a sound national data collection and information system for fishery and aquaculture.

In November 1998, the first FAO-COPEMED mission (Mr. R. Robles, Director COPEMED, and Mr. S. R. Coppola, FAO Fisheries Resources Officer, system designer and activity team leader) visited Malta with the twofold task of,

1. finalising the commitment and resources involved, and

2. undertaking a preliminary assessment of the Maltese fishery infrastructure and the current data collection system, considered as prerequisites for the task to be carried out.

The prepared plan, subsequently approved by the Maltese Government, fixed a working methodology consisting of the following:

1. Establishing a Statistical Unit in the Fishery Department

2. Designing a Data Collection and Statistical Programme based on short-medium term requirements as well as in compliance with the current FAO-GFCM, EU and COFI (Compliance Agreements) recommendations.

3. Securing, through upgrading the infrastructure (staff, resources, methodologies), the self-sustainability of long-term implementation of the data/information component within the Fishery Department.

During the months following this mission, the Maltese Government:

• established the Statistical Unit in the Fishery Department;

• identified staff and assigned them to the new duties;

• drew up the terms of reference for a scientific officer to cover the statistics and data processing domain, and put forward a request for his recruitment;

• identified and assigned adequate computer resources to the Unit;

• made preliminary contacts with the Central Statistical Office and the Fishermen's Associations.

In April 1999 the preliminary design was completed and its implementation started.