Malta Not Seen As Business Centre By French, Says Ambassador

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus

31 January 2002

Speaking at a business breakfast organised by the Malta Business Weekly newspaper the French Ambassador to Malta, Didier Destremau, lamented the fact that despite historically good relations between the two countries, French companies do not see Malta as an important centre for business.

Although France is Malta's third largest trading partner in Europe, the Ambassador explained, French businesses know very little about Malta's business environment, and there has been no French investment in the country for several years. He suggested that the Maltese attitude towards his country and the close relationship with Britain might be at fault, citing the absence of Maltese embassies in principal French cities as a major disadvantage.

'If you do not let us get to know you, it is all your fault,' M. Destremau observed somewhat controversially. 'The Maltese do not seem to see France as important...People with money in Malta think of British banks but never of French banks. They buy flats in Knightsbridge but not in the Alps.'

He also criticised the slow privatisation process in Malta, and suggested that the jurisdiction's attitude towards this will have to change when it accedes to the European Union.

However, the French Ambassador also stated that he was confident that more could be achieved, and promised to do his utmost to facilitate a closer relationship between the two countries. 'The only way to attract investment is to have the will to do it and the ability to get it,' he concluded.

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