Although the General Assembly has been allocated to Gold Coast in Australia this year, the Union Internationale Motonautique has already opened the bidding for the UIM General Assembly to take place in one of the European affiliated nations in the year 2009.

Malta Powerboat Federation has recently applied to host the 2009 UIM GA so that Malta, if successful, will be able to receive more than 53 UIM affiliated countries in two years time.

This will be quite an achievement as the Malta Powerboat Federation has only been accepted as a full member last November in Antalya, Turkey. UIM Secretary General will report to the UIM Executive Committee on May 18, 2008 all those National Authorities who are interested to request to hold the UIM GA 2009 in their respective country.

Following this application from MP, Sgr. Raffaele Chiulli who has been elected as the new President of UIM in Antalya last year was interviewed at San Benedetto del Tronto last weekend during the first round of the Powerboat Pi World Championship.

Question: Mr. President, we wish to know primarily your life in power-boating since you are a very important person for UIM?

Raff. Chiulli: Well I have been serving UIM for many years with enthusiasm and pride and I am really honoured to have become the President of this International Power-boating of Federations.

Q. Since Malta has become a full member in UIM, MPF is bidding for the first time, to hold the UIM GA in 2009, do you think this is possible?

RC: I don't have the answer for that because there is a process and there are procedures. What I can tell you very honestly and very openly is that the Mediterranean base will become more and more important for mediterranean boating. Malta's position is right at the centre of the Mediterranean and I would like to see more activities and more involvement of the Maltese power-boating federation.

Q. I know you have been following power-boating for many years now, what is you opinion about P1 Powerboating?

RC. P1 is a tremendous platform for the boatyard industry in the power-boating activities in the broad sense that they are together and they try to improve our sport. P1 is today and will be more and more one of the key disciplines of power-boating.

Q: Every new president in every International Federation would like to make his particular mark, what are your priorities for UIM?

RC. My priorities are very simple. I have three priorities……Integration, democracy and reputation. Integration means to have all the UIM members stake holders belonging to the same family …..we want to be the federation of federations…..democracy means to have an open democratically driven decision making process …… reputation means that UIM should be the leading sport in motor-boating. We are the only motor sport federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee and we are very proud of it.

Q. Do you really have an important goal that could happen in UIM for this year?

RC. Yes, and I think it is already happening. My dream was to lead back Class 1 into the UIM family and we have an agreement with APPA…the other dream was to have other cooperation with AJSPA for aqua bike jetsky…we are now in the position to have a real effective cooperation in this two key discipline in power-boating.

Q. Malta is the youngest and smallest federation in UIM…what sort of an expert advice will you give to Malta Powerboat Federation in order to have a successful bid for the UIM GA in 2009?

RC. Continue to work very hard, very openly, continue to build the relationship and the credibility that you are already building and I think you will be an important member of the international power-boating family