Bilateral talks were held in Malta between Foreign Minister Tonio Borg and Germany’s Minister of State for Europe, Michael Link.
Mr Link was in Malta for the opening of the newly restored Chapel of the German Langue at St John’s Co-Cathedral, which was financed by the German embassy. The project cost around €150,000.
Dr Borg said that the bilateral relations between Malta and Germany may be termed as excellent and deep-rooted with a strong legal framework of bilateral agreements spelling out various forms of cooperation.
Over the years, Malta received substantial aid from Germany in various fields such as in coastal surveillance, culture and technical cooperation. Germans comprised the third largest group of tourists visiting Malta and around 70 German enterprises created over 2,500 jobs. Meanwhile, the cultural and scientific exchanges between Germany and Malta continued to grow.
Photo: Pierre Sammut, DOIDr Borg also referred to Germany’s initiative to relocate asylum seekers from Malta. The total number of persons that were relocated to Germany since 2006 is 286.
Trade exchanges between the two countries rose to their highest levels when Malta joined the European Union. Malta returned to a trade surplus with Germany following three years when exports dipped below imports. Trade exchanges reached €631 million compared to €620 million in 2004. The trade surplus reached €16.3 million last year compared to a deficit of €14.6 million in 2010.
The number of German tourists visiting Malta has been fluctuating within the 125-150,000 range for a number of years and this year has been no exception.
German visitors to Malta in 2011 reached almost 135,000, an increase of 6.7 per cent over the previous year.
Per capita expenditure by German tourists rose by €49 in 2011 compared to the previous year and it rose again marginally in the first three months of this year compared to the same period in 2011.
There are currently 740 firms registered with MFSA with German shareholding.