The will to succeed

Bank of Valletta is proud and delighted to be associated with CHOGM as one of the prime supporting partners of this event and as the CHOGM official bank. We are confident that our expertise in the financial services sector, together with our active involvement in such a high-profile event, will make a significant contribution towards the success of CHOGM and the related fora, namely the Commonwealth Business Forum and the Commonwealth People's Forum which we are also supporting.

The Bank of Valletta Group is the largest Maltese bank in terms of assets and is also the largest company listed on the Malta Stock Exchange.

With a customer base of over 250,000 Maltese residents, our business credo - Your Success, Our Goal - positions us as the bank that takes a long-term view of its customers' needs, always seeking to offer added value and building our customer relationships on the principles of supportiveness and mutuality. It is natural for us, therefore, to take an active role in the Maltese community, supporting its development from an economic, social and cultural perspective.

Bank of Valletta's involvement in the communities in which it operates ranges beyond the mere provision of quality financial services. From a wider perspective, the bank is aware of its responsibilities extending beyond the scope of simple commercial relationships. It is in this context that we were the first bank in Malta to recognise the unique value, both from an economic and from a social, cultural and historical perspective, that the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), being held in Malta between November 25 and 27, has for our country.

This is the background to our active collaboration with the government and the CHOGM task force, which led to the appointment of Bank of Valletta as the CHOGM official bank.

CHOGM is an event of unprecedented significance for Malta because our country will be providing a unique and exceptional backdrop for constructive and forward-looking discussions - not only on the important issue of bridging the digital divide but also to identify ways of enhancing multilateral cooperation for prosperity, development and democracy, using Commonwealth networks to achieve these goals. When we consider that this Commonwealth meeting will be an opportunity to take action on important global issues such as the fight against poverty, international trade and world security, we realise the political weight of this event.

The theme of bridging the digital divide through proper investment in information and communications technology (ICT), chosen for CHOGM 2005, is very much in line with the strategy Bank of Valletta has been following over the past years. BOV has invested heavily in establishing a strong IT platform, which has helped to revolutionise banking in Malta through the provision of alternative delivery channels and through the introduction of internet banking to Malta.

CHOGM 2005 is an opportunity for Malta to feature very prominently on the international stage; there is no doubt that the CHOGM meeting is one of the most important events in Malta's post-independence history.

As the leading provider of financial services in Malta, BOV is giving its active and tangible support to the CHOGM organisers to ensure that the whole country will take full advantage of the opportunities that will emanate from this event. By being supportive towards CHOGM, we are once again putting our business credo into practice - indeed, the slogan Your Success, Our Goal could not be more appropriate. Our support is directed at helping make CHOGM a success for Malta and the Maltese people and that is why we are putting all our weight behind the organisers of this event as the CHOGM official bank.

Mr Depasquale is chief executive officer of Bank of Valletta.