The Government of Malta, along with highly influential magazine The Economist have teamed up to secure a number of high-profile speakers to address an international conference to be held in Malta between March 6 and 7.
Speakers to address ‘The Economist Business Roundtable with the Government of Malta: Invigorating Investment and Growth’, include a heavyweight of the political sphere former Italian Prime Minister and former EU Commissioner Mario Monti, Peter Mandelson, a power figure in the UK, who was also a former EU Commissioner, Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, former chairman at GoldmanSachs Jim O’Neil, Nabil El Araby, Secretary General of the Arab League, and a number of local speakers.
During this morning’s launch, Parliamentary Secretary Edward Zammit Lewis said that the conference will be the first of its kind in Malta, not least because of the collaboration with our prestigious partner, The Economist.
“In November, the government was approached by The Economist with the idea of holding their first ever international conference in Malta.
“The idea behind this conference is to look at Malta now and beyond 2014, providing entrepreneurs and business owners with an opportunity to hear international speakers map out their vision for the world economy and share tips and insights,” Dr Zammit Lewis said.
The first conference to have ever been held by The Economist was back in 1956 in Brazil.
The consultant editor of The Economist, John Andrews, said that this event will only be covered by the magazine if a speaker says something shattering.
“We don’t normally cover these events since we do not want to give importance to the magazine itself but to the country being discussed where a number of ideas are shared by those present at the conference,” Mr Andrews said.
He said that Malta had the smallest population in Europe and it is vital it punches above its weight, as in fact it did when it triumphed during the eurozone crisis.
The head of commercial banking at HSBC Malta said: "This conference with fit in nicely with our recent launches of inititiatives to help make Malta attractive to investors, such as the 50 million-euro Malta Trade for Growth Fund.
The conference will be held in collaboration with The Malta Independent and The Malta Business Weekly.
HSBC Malta will be sponsoring the event while Country Profiler are the official supporting organisation of the event.