Chevalier Adrian Busietta has been one of Malta’s leading businessmen and entrepreneurs for the last five decades, a span of time in which he experienced the tenure of no less than six Prime Ministers.
His quest and thirst for commerce, as well as that of putting Malta on the international commercial map, allowed him to meet well known personalities as former American President Jimmy Carter, President George Bush’s brother Jonathan, the notorious Adnan Khashoggi, the international media magnate Lord Roy Thomson and restaurateur Bernard Walsh.
Although primarily enamoured with banking, Mr Busietta’s commercial activities extensively encompassed a number of spheres, including import-export, property development and hotel construction, with Paceville having been one of his major investment areas. He also dabbled in the area of technology, including televisions and computers.
At one point, as the book reveals, he even attempted to launch his own television station. He represented the vast corporate company Amoco and was one of the first Maltese businessman to hold transactions with Japan and Daikin Kogyo in Osaka.
The Chevalier was also extremely active in local business associations, including having been the youngest-ever president of the Malta Trade Fair Corporation, president of the Malta Chamber of Commerce and the Malta-Arab Chamber and a Council member of the GRTU.
In this autobiography he deals extensively with the momentous event that saw the National Bank of Malta passing into the hands of the Maltese government and eventually emerging as the Bank of Valletta, an event from the 1970s that still brings a lot of memories.
In what he details as “the hijack and debacle of the National Bank of Malta”, Chev. Busietta gives an accurate and detailed insight into all the machinations that happened and laments how almost 40 years later, the shareholders of the former National Bank have remained empty-handed despite extensive political pressure and legal cases.
Another major event was the construction of Busietta Gardens at Madliena together with his partner of 40 years Dame Marie Angelique Caruana, and their lasting partnership is dealt with extensively in the book.
In later years he has concentrated more on his very active role within the Knights of St John of Jerusalem Ecumenical Order, again a role that has brought him into contact with a great number of international personalities including international pop stars Sir Cliff Richard and Mike Reed, as well as a number of kings and princes who are members of the Order.
Adrian Busietta – The Biography will in time serve as an essential chronicle of Malta’s transition from a military island fortress in the 1960s and 1970s through independence to the vibrant and thriving entity it is today, with its protagonist having played a leading part throughout the transition.
‘Adrian Busietta – The Biography’ is on sale at all leading bookshops for the price of €19.95