Jonathan Marland. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

It was absolutely fundamental to develop rules and regulations for businesses to adhere to, the chairman of the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council Jonathan Marland stressed.

“I think it is a problem for business in the modern world, and common business practices are something that we at the council are going to work on,” he said.

“If you are a British company or a Maltese one, there are rules and regulations that you cannot breach if you are going to invest in some of the emerging markets. So it is really for the emerging markets to make up their mind: if they want Maltese or British or Australian or Canadian investors, they will have to adhere to the rules and regulations that are set up by the governments.

“It is very important to recognise that London and Britain are not the be all and end all of the Commonwealth but they are the biggest exporter of investment of any centre in the world. So if you want to get your hands on that money as an emerging market, then you have to stick to the rules. I think that will be one of the key issues that we will – and should – be talking about.”

The council is jointly organising the Commonwealth Business Forum being held in Malta. The forum, to be held at the Hilton between November 24 and 26, will serve as a platform for the 53 nations to showcase investment opportunities to the global business community. The forum organising committee in Malta is being chaired by Allied Group managing director Adrian Hillman.

One of the challenges for the forum is that the Commonwealth is such a diverse grouping of nations, with GDPs ranging from India’s $1.9 trillion to Tuvalu’s $38 million. Together, they represent a population of over 2.3 billion and a GDP of more than $10 trillion.

The council was set up in 2014, making this its first involvement with the forum, which has been running in parallel to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) since 1997.

Lord Marland has considerable international experience in trade, having served as the chairman of the British Business Ambassadors network of the UK Trade and Investment, and also as the UK’s trade envoy in 2013. He said he had not been involved with the council for long enough to evaluate the impact of the forum, but stressed that it was important for outcomes to be measured.

“If the Business Forum, and the Commonwealth Enterprise and Investment Council are going to survive, they have to have outcomes, which come from having worth,” he said.

He believes that the council, a not-for-profit entity, will have an important role to play.

London and Britain are the biggest exporter of investment in the world. If you want to get your hands on that money, you have to stick to the rules

“The business model that previously looked after some of the business activity of the Commonwealth was redundant and therefore, if we were going to give new impetus to trade, enterprise and investment, we needed to start afresh with much closer links within the Commonwealth Secretariat – the bureaucratic manager of the Commonwealth – and much closer links with the other Commonwealth organisations. That is what we have set out to achieve,” he said.

The forum may bring together very disparate economies and levels of corporate governance, but Lord Marland stressed that it was also important to look at the positive aspects of the Commonwealth.

“You have 53 member countries, all speaking the same language. That is an incredibly powerful narrative and an incredibly powerful environment in which to do business. Those of us who have gone to do business in China, Japan or Latin America have had to do so through interpreters.

“We have great similarities, boosted by educational exchanges. We also have much in common when it comes to culture, sport and even humour. These are things that you cannot really touch but which bind the Commonwealth together,” he said.

One of the key themes of the forum will deal with is Malta as a trade hub for the EU, Middle East and Africa, which he thinks will provide a real opportunity to remind the participants that Malta is a fantastic place to do business.

“Malta has a fantastic location and fantastic trade links; it is an entrepreneurial nation which has a real business focus, just as your Prime Minister and Economy Minister do. It is a great opportunity.”