Malta must raise international visibility - PM

Not enough people around the world know about Malta despite the island's financial services industry growing 22 per cent last year, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi told Finance Malta's third annual conference at the Excelsior Hotel in Floriana last Friday.

The industry now employs around 7,000 people.

Dr Gonzi warned that in order to realise the ambition of raising this industry's contribution to GDP from 12 to 25 per cent by 2015, Malta must reinforce its efforts to promote itself internationally.

Over 200 local and foreign practitioners from all sectors of the financial services industry attended the event aimed to bring all stakeholders together to discuss developments in international financial regulation, new business opportunities for Malta, and the industry's ever-increasing potential for growth in a post-crisis world.

Conference participants surveyed by Angelou Economics during the event echoed the Prime Minister's remarks, with early results showing the vast majority rated improved marketing as one of the main development goals for the industry. The results also showed a high rate of optimism - over 80 per cent in the funds and accounting industries - for the sector's employment growth prospects. The greatest opportunities for expansion were being witnessed in the funds, asset management, accounting, insurance and banking sectors.

With the theme Change and Opportunity: Sustaining Growth in a Stable Environment, the conference featured a diverse line-up of domestic and international industry speakers and informative panel discussions on regulatory developments, corporate governance, international marketing and the financial services sector as part of Malta's Vision 2015.

Separate workshops on Islamic finance, the incoming regulation of hedge funds in the European Union, the AIFM Directive, and the implementation of Solvency II in the insurance sector were also held.

Foreign speakers included London-based business consultant Bob Garratt, Anchor Reputation Management's Martin Roche, Agha & Shamsi, L.L.C.'s Oliver Ali Agha, Simon Osborn of International Fund Investment, Uwe Eiteljoerge of the European Commission's Asset Management Unit, Poul Erik Skaanning-Jørgensen of BörsKonsult ApS, and Michael Imeson, contributing editor of The Banker Magazine.

Local speakers Finance Malta chairman Kenneth Farrugia, MFSA director general Andre Camilleri, while Malta Stock Exchange chairman Arthur Galea Salomone was as a panelist in a discussion on the exchange.

Kenneth Farrugia told delegates that while the global financial industry has begun to emerge from the shadows of the annus horribilis of 2008, it was facing regulatory upheaval with the introduction of stricter rules for banks, investment funds and insurance companies.

While 2009 was a positive year for Malta, it was essential that the island addressed challenges like providing adequately trained staff, to enable it to respond quickly to the needs of industry.