Malta is the highest climber of the Greenfield FDI Performance Index 2025

Malta climbed the most up the rankings in the 2025 iteration of the Greenfield FDI Performance, jumping 50 places from last year to rank 33rd globally despite being the 10th smallest country in the world by area.

The Greenfield FDI Performance Index, published by specialist media publication, fDi Intelligence, measures how well countries attract foreign direct investment (FDI) relative to their GDP. It essentially measures how well a country performs in attracting FDI projects compared to what might be expected given its GDP. It relies on data from fDi Markets and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Malta’s rapid ascendancy up the rankings means it has leapfrogged over many of its significant competitors including Ireland (34), Belgium (57), and Luxembourg (59). Out of western European countries, Portugal and Spain were the only jurisdictions that attracted more FDI than the Mediterranean island.

The driver behind Malta’s success is the country’s ability in the past year to improve offerings for foreign countries. Most FDI projects into Malta cite the country’s strategic location as a gateway between Europe and North Africa, competitive tax incentives, and highly trained, English-speaking workforce as to why they chose the country over other comparable jurisdictions.

Beyond these key attributes, Malta’s size means that it does not have the luxury of a scattergun approach when it comes to FDI, instead laser focusing on less traditional industries such as esports, iGaming, and digital assets. Even within more traditional sectors like insurance, Malta has carved out its own niche, becoming the only full EU member state with Protected Cell Company legislation and the only jurisdiction to have enacted legislation facilitating the establishing of Securitisation Cell Companies (SCCs).

Malta’s hyper-focused approach coupled with inherent factors such as location has resulted in an in influx of foreign firms commencing operations on the island in the past year. While most inward investment in Malta is service based, the country is also capable of attracting FDI across a wide range of sector. For example, Turkish industrial company Gimas announced plans to establish a $7.5m subsidiary to produce wind turbine components.