Brian Callanan, director of Membership, Trade and Regions, at the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC), had an extensive meeting with FOI officials, headed by FOI vice-president Adrian Bajada.

Aspects related to the membership base were discussed at the meeting. These included issues relating to member categories and development, range of services, internal marketing, the shift from manufacturing to service industries, income generation, as well benchmarking of the FOI activities with other federations.

This meeting was made possible through the FOI-IBEC twinning arrangement, drawn up under the UNIMED project, which is co-ordinated by the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), of which the FOI is a member, and funded by the European Commission.

At this meeting, Mr Bajada was accompanied by FOI director general Edwin Calleja, FOI administration manager John Scicluna and FOI executive Cecilia Vella.