Tonio Fenech, Parliamentary Secretary in the Finance Ministry, participated in a US government-sponsored International Visitor Leadership Programme in the United States between 22 January and 2 February.
Mr Fenech visited Washington, DC; Austin, Texas; and Tampa and Key West, Florida. His meetings and visits focused on US immigration policy, environmental and alternative energy initiatives, business opportunities, and the US-EU relationship.
Mr Fenech had several meetings with officials from the US House of Representatives, the Departments of State and Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, state and local officials, and a number of businesses and non-governmental organisations. The highlights of the programme included a meeting with Texas Governor Rick Perry followed by a dinner hosted by Malta’s Honorary Consul in Texas with business leaders in Austin, and a visit to a Coast Guard facility in Key West, Florida. As a follow-up to the visit to Texas, Anita Perry, wife of Governor Rick Perry, will pay an official visit to Malta in March.
The International Visitor Leadership Programme is designed to increase mutual understanding through communication at the personal and professional level.
Past participants from Malta have included leaders in government, politics, media, education, economics, drug and crime prevention, science, environment, labour, human rights, women’s issues, arts management, and a variety of other fields.
The American Embassy selects participants to visit the United States where they will meet and confer with their professional counterparts. During the programmes, which usually last two to four weeks, International Visitors have an opportunity to experience the United States first hand and also to enjoy home hospitality from an American family.
The US Embassy in Malta selects about three Maltese participants every year for this programme. This year, in addition to Mr Fenech, the embassy sent a Maltese participant for a programme on international crime issues and a young Maltese journalist will be joining counterparts from Europe in the Edward R. Murrow Programme for Journalists. Since the introduction of this programme in Malta in the 1960s, over 150 Maltese professionals, in the fields of politics, law, security, media, education, culture, etc., have participated in programmes in the United States.