This paper focuses on Malta’s cooperation and interaction mode in the global economic system, and analyzes its economic characteristics and structural optimization path. Taking Malta as the research object, the index system of influencing factors is constructed, including three dimensions of regional trade development, border economic development and regional economic development. The observation period is 2020-2024, and principal component analysis is used to explore the core factors driving Malta’s economic development. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to measure the linear correlation between the factor indicators, and the validity was analyzed relying on the KMO test and Bartlett’s sphericity test.F1, F2, and F3 mainly explained 90.274% of the total variance, and the total amount of exports X2, total inbound tourism revenue X5, and gross regional product X6 had the greatest impact on the principal components F1, F2, and F3, with the coefficients of 0.957, 0.942, respectively, 0.896.Based on this, this paper proposes a differentiated cooperation strategy with a view to providing a theoretical basis and practical reference for Malta’s integration into global value chains.
