Fourth year secondary students of the Sacred Heart School were this morning given a tour of the Foreign Ministry – by the minister himself.
The ministry regularly opens its doors to students from private, church and government schools, to help them acknowledge its work, including by diplomatic missions abroad.
Minister Tonio Borg explained that the ministry’s work covers many different areas, including consular assistance for Maltese citizens abroad.
Dr Borg spoke on the role of embassies and said these were crucial to help attract foreign direct investment and tourists to Malta. Malta’s image benefitted from the diplomatic work done in international fora.
The ministry also played an important role in the signing of agreements with third countries. The minister said that in the past 30 months, Malta ratified, signed and entered into force 110 bilateral agreements, 30 of which were to facilitate investment, 24 to avoid double taxation.
Dr Borg noted that embassies had received a record number of business-related contacts, reaching 1,300 since last January.
He encouraged the students to take up studies related to international relations and diplomatic affairs.
Speaking on Malta’s role in EU, he noted that the country had the least infringement procedures against it, from among the member states. The infringements had gone down to 16 in 2010 when compared to 29 in 2009 and 40 in 2008.
Dr Borg said that throughout this year 42,000 visas were issued to third persons who visit Malta and those who visit Schengen countries through Malta.
The minister said that 19,000 Maltese had benefitted from changes to citizenship legislation in 1989, 2000 and 2007.
He noted that in the first months of next year Malta will host the 5+5 heads of states meeting. Among others, the head of states of Italy, France and Libya will attend.
The students Dr Borg’s office, which was used by Napoleon Bonaparte in his brief stay in Malta in June 1798.