MINISTER JOSEF BONNICI ATTENDS EURO-MED CONFERENCE ON INVESTMENT IN LISBON

MINISTER JOSEF BONNICI ATTENDS EURO-MED CONFERENCE ON INVESTMENT IN LISBON

Minister Josef Bonnici has just returned from Lisbon where he attended the "Euro-Med Conference on Investment". The conference was held under the auspices of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and was co-organised by the Governments of Portugal, which currently holds the EU Presidency, and Tunisia.

Other participants in the conference included, amongst others, Mr Antonio Guterres (Prime Minister of Portugal); Mr Christian Sautter (Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry of France); Mr Piero Fassino (Minister of Foreign Trade of Italy) and Mr Shimon Peres (ex Prime Minister of Israel and now Minister of Regional Co-operation).

In his intervention, Minister Bonnici reiterated Malta's enthusiastic support for the Euro-Med process; which support will be further enhanced upon Malta's accesion to membership in the European Union.

In the remainder of the speech, Minister Bonnici focused primarily upon current obstacles to the desired expansion in investment and trade within the Mediterranean countries, due to the absence of provisions for the cumulation of rules of origin on products that could potentially incorporate components from more than one Mediterranean country.

At the present time, most Mediterranean countries have, or are in the process of, concluding "Association Agreements" with the EU. Each one of these agreements allows for the duty free export into the EU of most industrial goods manufactured within each of the Mediterranean Countries, on the basis of precise rules of origin criteria. However, there is no provision for cumulating together the value of parts manufactured in one of the other Mediterranean countries with the local component. This effectively impedes the development of transnational manufacturing initiatives that could take advantage of the different characteristics and cost differentials in the Mediterranean region by splitting the manufacturing process across two or more locations, (e.g. Tunisia and Malta).

This deficiency will be rectified in 2010 with the definitive establishment of the Euro-Med Free Trade Area. However, as Minister Bonnici remarked in his speech: "Can we realistically wait until that time (2010) when the present rapid move to globalisation requires immediate adjustments?"

Minister Bonnici explained that this, amongst others, was one of the reasons that had prompted the Maltese Government to seek EU membership instead of being satisfied with eventual participation in the Euro-Med Free Trade Areas. Malta, Cyprus and Turkey are the only countries within the Euro-Med partnership that are eligible to join the EU. It is no coincidence that all three have applied to do so.

One of the invited speakers to the conference was Dr Leonard Mizzi (Director of the Malta Business Bureau in Brussels) who spoke about Foreign Direct Investment within the Euro-Med area.

During the Lisbon Conference, Minister Bonnici also had the opportunity to hold one-to-one meetings with Mr Piero Fassino (Italian Minister of Foreign Trade) and with Mr Joaqim Pina Mourra (Portuguese Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs). The talks primarily centred on Malta's imminent negotiations for EU membership and on other subjects concerning Malta's trade with the EU.

The Minister was accompanied by Mr Patrick Catania (MDC Deputy Chairman) and by Mr Ray Cachia Zammit (Personal Assistant), who were joined in Lisbon by Ambassador Alfred Zarb (Malta Euro-Med Co-ordinator) and by Ms Ella Strickland (Policy Co-ordinator in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is currently on a 6 month posting in Lisbon to follow the Portuguese EU Presidency.)