Today marks the start of a conference organised by the Economist which will feature the participation of various keynote speakers, including the likes of Peter Mandelson, Mario Monti, Martin Schulz, Enrico Letta and our own politicians, including Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, his deputy Louis Grech and others.

The conference is being organised by the Government of Malta and the influential Economist magazine. Standard Publications also prides itself on being a media partner in the event.

The news that the conference was to be held came out shortly after the besmirching of Malta in the throes of battle between the government and the European Commission on the Individual Investor Programme.

Since then, the waters have calmed, and Malta has been given the go-ahead to begin the programme from the European Commission. No doubt, this sort of publicity is much more welcome.

The speakers are of great gravitas. Aside from our own politicians, the names on there are huge. Mario Monti and Enrico Letta need no introduction – they are former Italian Prime Ministers. But there is also one of the masterminds behind UK’s new Labour – Peter Mandelson, who engineered the Labour Party’s 1997 landslide victory in the UK. Since then he has held cabinet positions, the role of European Commissioner and is now head of Policy Network – an international policy think tank.

Martin Schulz should be another very interesting speaker. Besides being President of the European Parliament, Mr Schulz is also the Socialist’s candidate for the post of European Commission President. On another note, he is also known to be a personal friend of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and was a mentor to the Prime Minister in his time inside the European Parliament.

In total, some 300 people, including past and present European politicians and various members of the Maltese Cabinet, will participate. The conference’s official title is “Business Roundtable with the Government of Malta: Invigorating Investment and Growth”. The conference is also set to bring a number of players from beyond the EU’s shores to Malta – and these include representatives from the Arab League, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and the CEO of Genel Energy.

Aside from general discussions, the Maltese panel speakers will be concentrating their efforts on bringing investment to Malta. But aside from all the keynote speakers, the real wealth of knowledge that will come out of it is the participation from the floor. As ideas and theories are mooted and discussed, those present will be there to offer their two cents worth and this is where the government will listen and learn.

Discussions will be moderated by John Peet and John Andrews, The Economist’s Europe editor and consultant editor respectively. The Malta Independent, the Malta Independent on Sunday and the Malta Business Weekly is proud to be a participant and will be covering the vent in full.