Having established itself in the region in the 1970s as a low cost manufacturing and logistics hub. Malta has gone from strength to strength, as evidenced by Malta's high level of activity in the value-added productive industries. Malta boasts of substantial investment in manufacturing, research and development activities (especially in the pharmaceutical industry), services and the ICT sector. Also Malta's development as a logistics hub has been further bolstered in recent years by Malta's strategic geographical location, bridging Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, a position successfully exploited by the transhipment Freeport (the 10th Busiest container terminal in Europe) and an extensive feedering network.