VALETTA. – The residents of Malta will soon be able to pay their bills at one go, order a taxi for their next night out, and top up their phone from the same place.

Some 400 pay-kiosks are being set up across the island by a Malta-based company that hopes to expand its network to other ¬European countries, the Times of Malta informs.

Through these booths, people will be able to pay their utility bills and traffic fines, book newspaper adverts, top-up local and foreign phones, order a taxi, and look up real estate property information that they can e-mail back to themselves.

The woman behind the idea is 35-year-old Vera Boyajyan from Armenia, who, like many other Maltese residents, has spent hours on end queuing to pay her bills, and has finally decided to “make life easier.”

The young woman graduated in medicine, but for the past five years she has wanted to launch “something innovative” on the island.

Although she admits the pay-kiosk idea is not a new one, as it had put roots in Russia some five years ago, she is sure it is not common in the rest of Europe. This is Mobile Systems’ first project, which the company has been developing since 2010.

Malta’s Communications Minister Austin Gatt, who was present for the kiosks’ launch, said Malta not only topped European e-government benchmarks, but this initiative put the island at the forefront of technological investment.