9th June 2009

NIC(Malta) Hosts Internet Domain Registries Meeting in Malta

Internet domain names ending with .mt are registered with NIC(Malta), the Maltese Country Code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) registry. Similarly, Nominet UK is the ccTLD registry for .uk domain names, DENIC is the registry for the German .de domain names, and every country has its own domain registry.

Over the last week, more than sixty representatives from over thirty ccTLD registries congregated in Malta for a CENTR General Assembly that was hosted by NIC(Malta).

CENTR, the Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries, is an association of Internet ccTLD Registries. The organisation has a European focus, but there are no geographical restrictions to membership, so that in addition to more than forty of the countries in the region, CENTR’s members include the country-code registries from several countries outside Europe (such as Canada, Iran, Japan and New Zealand).

ccTLDs are distinguished from domains that do not have a geographic or country designation and focus, such as .com, .org and .info domains, which are referred to as Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs).

CENTR provides a forum to discuss matters of policy affecting ccTLD registries and acts as a channel of communication to Internet governing bodies such as ICANN and other organisations involved with the Internet.

NIC(Malta) is a founding and active member of CENTR and regularly participates in CENTR meetings as part of its commitment to follow ccTLD best practices for the benefit of the local Internet community.

NIC(Malta) is grateful to Bank of Valletta for supporting the hosting of such a prestigious event in Malta.

More information about NIC(Malta) and on .mt domain registrations is available at:
  www.nic.org.mt

09 June 2009