The 46th Bank of Valletta Review, has been published, containing four articles, written by Maltese and foreign authors. The themes in this issue relate to the conflicts of interest in the governance of Maltese cooperatives and their financial implications, small island economies, planning and provisions of the recently enacted environment and development Planning Act 2010, and the labour market participation of women in small EU member states.

The first paper entitled “Conflicts of Interest in the Governance of Maltese Co-operatives and their Financial Implications” is authored by Peter J. Baldacchino, Head of the Accountancy Department at the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy at the University of Malta, and Ms Jeanelle Bugeja, auditor with PricewaterhouseCoopers (Malta). The main objective of this paper is to ascertain the major conflicts of interest faced in the governance of the Maltese co-operative movement consisting of three governing institutions and individual co-operatives, as well as the financial implications of such conflicts. Results from personal semi-structured interviews point to a lack of awareness on the deeper meaning of what constitutes a conflict of interest. Furthermore, no clear delineation of roles among the three institutions is as yet present. With respect to co-operatives, results reveal that the majority of conflicts of interest surface within committees of management owing to varying personal/entity interests and the overlapping roles of directorship and management. In the authors’ view, at the co-operative level, the need arises for the development of a general Code of Ethics and for better training for those in charge of governance, as well as for skill gap analysis and the formalisation of their relevant policies. On the other hand, at the institutional level, the need beckons for general restructuring, including revisions to the appointment system of the respective governing bodies.

The title of the second paper “Small Island Economies: Caribbean versus Pacific” authored by Professor Jerome L. McElroy, Professor of Economics at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, and Ms Kimberly J. Medek, a graduate at the same college, deals with small island economies focusing on the Caribbean and the Pacific Island States. After a review of the small island economy literature, this study compares the average performance of 16 Caribbean versus 15 mainly Pacific islands with three from the Indian Ocean. Mean difference analysis is employed across 22 socio-economic and demographic variables. Results confirm previous research. The Caribbean outperforms the Pacific with higher per capita GDP and life expectancy and lower infant mortality and fertility. Different migration experiences discriminate the more dynamic Caribbean characterised by heavy immigration from the relatively stagnant Pacific marked by chronic emigration. The three determinants offered to

account for these differences involve significant Caribbean advantages: (1) geographic proximity to the major global markets, (2) early post-war development of international tourism and offshore banking, and (3) a longer and more intense period of colonisation that early on established basic infrastructure and market institutions.

Professor Kevin Aquilina, Dean of the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta, in his paper"Plus ça Change, plus c’est la mème chose?—an Examination of Planning Provisions of the Recently Enacted Environment and Development Planning Act 2010," compares and contrasts the Development Planning Act, 1992 and its successor, the Environment and Development Planning Act, 2010 with a view to ascertain whether there has been a drastic change in the latter enactment when compared to the former. Although some changes have been encountered in this exercise, it can safely be stated that the new law has built upon the old law. The changes are more by way of addition of new provisions not hitherto dealt with in the old law. This means that there has not been a severance of the umbilical cord between the new law and the old law: on the contrary one can make a case for continuity and updating of the law in the realm of development planning to cater for those unregulated circumstances which have emerged since the workings of the old law way back to 1992.

The fourth paper, authored by Ms Lily Said who completed the course of MA in Islands and Small States Studies (ISSS) at the University of Malta, is entitled "The Labour Market Participation of Women in Small European Union Member States". This article gives an overview of the dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the award of the degree MA (ISSS) in September, 2012. This article is intended to provide a comparative analysis of women’s participation in the labour market in different European contexts with special reference to five small European States. The paper shows that in the small Member States the participation rate of women is increasing faster than that of the larger Member States, that in the small Member States the participation rate of women is increasing faster than the male participation rate and that a higher education level is related to a higher participation rate of women in the small Member States. The paper also discusses some implications derived from the main conclusions.

Bank of Valletta Review is no longer issued in hard copy format but the Journal can be viewed on the BOV Website at: http://www.bov.com/page.asp?p=10805