South African High Commissioner, Anthony Le Clerk Kgwadu Mongalo, during a courtesy farewell call on President Guido de Marco, invited the strengthening of economic relations and communication between South Africa and Malta. "Especially closer relations in trade, tourism and exploring new investment opportunities and scientific exchanges, would greatly benefit both our countries," Mr Mongalo said.
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The Commissioner for the Republic of South Africa, HE Mr. Lenin Shope, held that growing trade and tourism links between Malta and South Africa are substantiated by increasing business opportunities between Malta and South Africa.
In recognition of the business literature presented by the Commissioner to the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Mifsud said, “On the occasion of South African National Day on 27th April, we shall be holding a business meeting to further this initiative. South African entrepreneurs will be visiting Malta to meet Maltese counterparts in one-to-one meetings. In recent years we have registered a measured but steady increase in both business contacts and in Maltese citizens visiting South Africa as a leisure destination. There is great scope to strengthen bilateral relations between Malta and South Africa through increasing co-operation in the fields of trade, tourism and foreign investment and we want more Maltese citizens to benefit from these opportunities.”
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On Saturday 24th July, during a staff reception held at the firm’s new offices in St Ursula Street, Valletta, the firm announced the admission of Priscilla Mifsud-Parker and Kenneth Camilleri as partners.
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“Malta’s early signing of the Capte Town Convention has proved a critical move is Malta’s positioning as a prime aviation centre and augurs well for Malta’s Aircraft Register,” stated Dr JP Chetcuti, Partner in charge of the firm’s Aviation Law Practice Group. “Investors find it significantly difficult to preserve their interest in mobile assets such as aircraft, yachts and vessels are mobile. This has led to various financial institutions requiring a burdensome level of security in order to mitigate the risk involved and any potential losses and has hence hindered aircraft financing activities. This convention is a move to dissipate such risks and thus facilitates the financing of aircraft and other mobile equipment.”
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This year, the Excelsior Hotel in Valletta had the opportunity to host the Finance Malta Annual Conference 2010, which conference dealt with the new opportunities facing the Maltese Industry in the wake of new global regulations and controls
In his opening address the Prime Minister stated that the Maltese Financial Services Industry needs to remain on top of last year's financial crash and ensure that we get prepared for a new era of global regulation. He emphasised that Malta is as yet undiscovered by many stakeholders and not enough people around the world know what the country offers in terms of financial and investment opportunities.
Malta's profile in financial has grown exponentially in the last 2 decades - the industry grew by 22 percent in 2009 and now employs some 7000 people. However, in order to achieve the ambition of raising its contribution to GDP from 12 percent to 25 percent by 2015, Malta must reinforce its efforts to promote itself internationally in order to continue to attract investors.
“Our biggest challenge is that people don’t know about us,” he said. “Malta needs to be out there more.”
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