The new offices in Malta of major accountancy firm Ecovis were opened in Balzan by Finance Minister Tonio Fenech.
The Malta office is one of the latest Ecovis centres among 170 spread out in 27 countries and employing over 2,300 partners, associates and other staff.
Defined as the third fastest expanding accountancy firm in the world by the International Accounting Bulletin, Ecovis is a consulting group for medium-sized companies made up of tax advisers, lawyers, auditors and management accountants.
Present for the inauguration was Kay F. Thomsen, president of Ecovis International who described as very positive Malta's efforts to strengthen the financial sector and its aims to become a European leader in this field.
"One reason why Ecovis did put Malta into a list of countries with a high priority is that Ecovis wants to be represented everywhere in the European Union and especially in the eurozone.
"The second reason is of course the very interesting Maltese tax refund system which hopefully the Minister of Finance will defend for a long time to keep Malta as one of the most attractive financial centres worldwide," Mr Thomsen said in his speech.
Anthony Vella and Karl Bonanno, partners of the Ecovis Malta Office, described their experience with Ecovis as a great step forward thanks to the benchmarks set by Ecovis International throughout their offices worldwide. Mr Vella highlighted the problems faced by this sector in recruitment of professional staff.
"Team build-up is becoming or rather is already an impossible task. With the expansion we are experiencing in the Maltese financial services industry finding human resources has become a nightmare. From our part Ecovis shall be offering training and exchange of staff which will provide international experience to new graduates joining our team," Mr Vella said.
Ecovis Malta will be offering a wide range of services from accountancy and audit to corporate and tax related services.
Finance Minister Tonio Fenech stated: "Malta's growth as a financial services centre is founded on a set of policies that have been strongly influenced by EU membership, the development of a single European market in financial services and the adoption of the euro".
Mr Fenech said that, over the last 10 years, investment services have grown and Malta is now home to around 100 pan-European and other retail funds and over a 150 hedge funds.
As a consequence, funds under management have shot up from €1 billion to over €9 billion over the last two years. As a result of Malta's EU membership, he said, 25 new captive and other insurance companies have established themselves in Malta.