A top priority target for the Malta Stock Exchange is the widening of the choice of securities available to investors, MSE chairman Joe Zammit Tabona said. He was speaking during dinner attended by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, Finance Parliamentary Secretary Tonio Fenech, and other guests.

Mr Zammit Tabona welcomed the two newly-listed companies, Crimsonwing plc and Maltapost plc and then outlined the work carried out during the past year, saying that new equity and bond offerings during 2007 had raised some 840 million euros on the market. He said that the corporate restructuring exercise that, as from last November, turned the Malta Stock Exchange into a public liability company, was a very important event for the Exchange.

Mr Zammit Tabona also spoke of the important role that FinanceMalta is playing in attracting new financial businesses to Malta. FinanceMalta was promoting Malta’s financial services brand by bringing together and harnessing the resources of the industry, he said.

Dr Gonzi said the Malta Stock Exchange has developed into an important financial institution which fulfills an essential function in the national economic framework by facilitating the process by which savings are channelled into productive investment. The Exchange has been instrumental in shifting the traditional Maltese mentality away from saving and towards investing and such a positive development could only be achieved because the Exchange has achieved credibility and recognition both nationally and internationally.

He added that now that Malta is in the eurozone, its potential as an attractive business location has been enhanced, reflecting a more stable macroeconomic environment, a lower cost of capital and reduced exchange rate risks in euro-related transactions.