Mur Lura
Speech by H.E. Prof. Guido de Marco, President of Malta, At the Offices of the IHK Chamber of Industry and Commerce – Stuttgart - 7th November, 2001
pr1647
07/11/2001
07/11/2001
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
| Malta, strategically located in the middle of an | ancient sea of civilisation – the Mediterranean – possesses a pluri-millennial history – a history which is enriched by the multiple interaction and passage of diverse peoples coming from our region, and beyond. |
| This interaction made of the Maltese archipelago a | platform for trade and commerce for the whole region, since antiquity. The Phoenicians, the Romans, the Arabs, the Normans, the Knights of the Order of St John, and the British are some of those who have availed themselves of Malta’s strategic location for political and economic finalities. |
| Thanks to our particular history, we have developed | an essentially European identity, with cultural and ethnic ties to peoples from all over the Euro-Mediterranean region. This factor lends us a unique cross-cultural dexterity and understanding. |
| Since Independence thirty-seven years ago, Malta has | developed very good relations with countries in Europe and in the Mediterranean. Malta offers an English-speaking workforce, excellent telecommunication services and accessibility, and a stable political environment. We have one of the highest export per capita ratios in the world; we provide an impressive range of goods and services – some produced by German companies based in Malta. |
| We export a total of over US$3,000,000,000 in goods | and services annually; 54.5% of our exports go to the European Union, with the rest distributed among markets in North Africa, Asia and North America. |
| The Government of Malta set out to promote | cooperation between local and foreign companies. The Malta External Trade Corporation (METCO) is the government agency which serves as a focal point – a one-stop shop – for trade promotion and export development. METCO is in effect a partnership between Government and the private sector represented by the Federation of Industry and the Chamber of Commerce. |
| METCO is currently assisting companies interested to | use Malta as a trading hub to enter the North African and Southern European markets. There are several German companies based in Malta, ranging their products and services from marketing software products to industrial goods. These companies have already experienced the high growth of the Mediterranean market and the rapid expansion in the region. |
| With Germany in particular, we have developed very | strong business trade links. As a matter of fact, Germany is Malta’s second most important market within the European Union. |
Ladies and Gentlemen,
| Nowhere is Malta’s strong and healthy relationship | with Germany more pronounced than in the industrial sector. Indeed, German companies were amongst the pioneers in the manufacturing sector, setting up operations in Malta as far back as the 1960s, when the industrialisation process was still in its infancy. Since then, some 60 German companies have set up and are now operating in Malta. Some names are global players and are known to you all: ProMinent, a world leader in fluid metering and controls technology; Brandstätter, manufacturers of the famous Playmobil toys; Bogner, renowned for their top quality skiing garments; Lloyd, producers of the well-known Lloyd Shoes; and Menrad, the maker of high-quality spectacle frames, just to mention a few names. |
| Others are not so well known, but form an important | part of Germany’s highly esteemed Mittelstand. Top manufacturing companies in Malta are in their majority German-owned. Some of them started operations recently. Others have been in Malta for some thirty years, which proves that they found Malta to be a stable and reliable partner. |
| Why are these companies in Malta? What are the | conditions in Malta that have made it so attractive to the German investor? |
| Figures published by Dresdner Bank last year show | that Malta has the highest per capita rate of accumulated inward investment of any of the countries that have applied for EU membership. There is in fact no single factor that explains this phenomenon. The answer is that Malta offers a package of benefits that, when taken together, make it a unique economic proposition. |
| The most important of these factors is the quality of | our workforce – our human resources. Government invests heavily in our educational system. Our University is one of the oldest in Europe with more than 8,000 students. We have technical institutes that supply industry with skilled technicians. We have a dual system of vocational education. The quality of our workforce also is a result of a sound work ethic, and flexibility. As an example of workforce quality, I can mention STMicroelectronics, the global manufacturer of semiconductors, which operates a 2,500 worker strong plant in Malta – of whom, very few are foreigners. |
| A second factor: cost. Total costs of production in | Malta are only about one-third of those in Germany. Yet the foreign companies in Malta confirm that it is possible to achieve the same quality standards in Malta as one can expect to achieve anywhere in Germany. |
| Thirdly, the Maltese government actively encourages | and supports foreign investment primarily through the Malta Development Corporation (MDC). MDC, on the one hand promotes investment to Malta through its network of overseas offices – here in Stuttgart, in Munich, in Milan, in the USA and in Japan. And it also administers the package of incentives offered by the government to investors. |
| A new package of investment incentives was in fact | introduced earlier this year. It is known as the Business Promotion Act or BPA. It has been designed to maintain and enhance Malta’s attractiveness to the foreign investor, while at the same time satisfying Malta’s international commitments to the OECD and WTO. |
| One of the main features of the BPA is that it seeks | to give more direction to Malta’s industrial development. It does this by identifying and listing specific industrial sectors that would be most suitable for Malta and which would complement and add value to the existing Maltese industrial infrastructure. Importantly, the BPA also includes benefits designed to make it even more attractive for companies to continue to expand their operations in Malta, whether through an investment programme or through an increase in the size of the workforce. |
| Our style in promoting industrial investment is not | directed at displacing companies operating in their home country, but to extend their activities in Malta through investment incentives and through the clear possibility of finding closer markets for their products. |
Ladies and Gentlemen,
| Malta and Germany have managed to develop a symbiosis | of interaction in various spheres of interest. The German tourist to Malta is our second largest tourism market. Lufthansa, Air Malta and other airlines provide excellent communications, through both scheduled and charter flights, between Malta and several German cities, including Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf and Berlin. A Malta to Frankfurt flight takes only two and a half hours. |
| In Malta, we sell geography. The success story of our | Freeport is just one example. Sea Malta and other shipping lines cover most the major ports of the Mediterranean ensuring regular and just-in-time delivery of goods. Today, as in the past, the Euro-Mediterranean region presents unique opportunities and potential. By 2010, in the Euro-Mediterranean region, there should evolve an extensive free-trade area, further enhancing opportunities of trade and investment. One has only to figure out the opportunities of the population market size which is set to expand by over 50% by the year 2025. |
| METCO and MDC are vehicles for this healthy linkage | between Germany and Malta, as well as providing windows of expertise and opportunity to other markets in our region. |
| Today, as in the past, Malta earnestly endeavours to | keep on fostering an environment of stability conducive to better bonds of business and trade. |
| Members of my delegation are ready to take questions | from the audience. |
Thank you.
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