American interest in Malta - significant and growing

US Ambassador Molly Hering Bordonaro disclosed that "American manufacturing firms employ over 3,000 people in Malta - one in every 50 Maltese employees" during the AmCham Malta (Maltese-American Chamber of Commerce) annual general meeting at the Malta Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise.

These figures do not take into account the Maltese employed within US franchises in Malta. The American Ambassador also said that the governments of Malta and the US were making progress on topics of significant interest to potential American investors.

These issues included a double taxation agreement; the Visa Waiver Programme - for which Malta was well positioned due to its forthcoming introduction of the biometric passport; the ship-boarding agreement, designed to establish a safer haven for international trade and tourism in the Mediterranean; the American government's offer to expand its programme for resettling refugees currently in Malta; and the initiation of numerous cultural exchanges and academic research programmes between the two friendly peoples.

Ambassador Bordonaro noted that strong American interest in Malta is due largely to the island's highly-qualified, English-speaking workforce; its harmonious industrial setting; its access to an EU internal market of half a billion consumers; and its proximity to the growth markets of North Africa.

Thanking AmCham president Mark Miceli-Farrugia and the AmCham board for promoting American business and Maltese trade within the US, she also stressed the fact that that the US represents one of Malta's largest trading partners outside the EU.

Last year, American firms and consumers purchased over Lm77.1 million of Maltese goods while Maltese firms and consumers purchased Lm118.2 million in American goods - an aggregate increase of nearly seven per cent over the previous year.