Leading Egyptian and foreign legal and business consultants recently participated in a half-day seminar in Cairo on financial services and residence permits offered by Malta.

The seminar was organised jointly by the Maltese Embassy and the Bank of Valletta Representative Office in Egypt.

Giovanni Miceli, Ambassador of Malta in Cairo, gave an overview of the bilateral relations between Malta and Egypt. He referred to the present negotiations between the two governments to finalise a Visa Abolition Agreement for diplomatic and service passports as well as the efforts to set up a Maltese-Egyptian Business Council.

Julian Holland, Manager of the BoV Representative Office in Egypt, explained the main functions of the BoV Office in Cairo, which consist of assisting the bank's customers in Egypt, promoting its services to potential customers and liaising between the BoV Group and the Egyptian financial institutions. He said services for BoV clients include business introductions for importers, exporters and investors seeking business opportunities in Egypt.

Victor Zammit, Head of Investment Wealth Management at BoV who came from Malta specifically for this seminar, illustrated the reasons for investing in Malta.

He portrayed in particular Malta's framework for the development of financial services, namely legislation, regulation and international evaluations. He highlighted Malta's critical success factors, which include the operating environment, legal and accounting services, human resources and taxation. He gave an overview of BoV plc, its shareholder structure, credit rating, business profile, branch network and service delivery channels.

Mr Zammit elaborated on the BoV personal wealth management, which offered a distinctive service for affluent clients, and expounded on the customer segmentation strategy, expert management, right investment solution, rewarding partnership, investment process and risk diversification.